them
/ˈðɛm/ pronoun, noun, determiner
Also a form of they
Forms of they thems dem
- pronoun Used as the direct object of a verb. “She treated them for a cold.”
- pronoun Used as the indirect object of a verb. “She wrote them a letter.”
- pronoun Used as the object of a preposition. “Give it to them.”
- pronoun (nonstandard or colloquial, uncommon) As a grammatical subject or object when joined with a conjunction. “[...] and now them and the Goo Goo Dolls are playing together.”
- pronoun Used in isolation or apposition, or (sometimes proscribed) as the complement of the copula (be). “Who was there? —Them.”
- noun (uncommon) Synonym of they (“a non-binary person”).
- determiner (dialectal or nonstandard) Those. “Gimme two of them yellow ones.”
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English þem, from Old Norse þeim.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [AS. th\'d6m, dat. pl. of the article, but influenced by the Scand. use of the corresponding form Þeim as a personal pronoun. See They.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “them”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details