thrive
Americanverb (used without object)
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thrives,
present (3rd person singular)
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thrived,
past participle, past
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throve,
past (Archaic)
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thriven,
past participle (Archaic)
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thriving
present participle
verb phrase
verb
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to grow strongly and vigorously
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to do well; prosper
Usage
What does thrive mean? To thrive is to grow and develop strongly. This sense of the word can be applied to people as well as other living things, including animals and plants. Thrive can also mean to be successful, to be fulfilled, or to develop successfully. Both senses of thrive are often discussed alongside the specific conditions, environment, or situation that allow or help someone or something to thrive. For example, babies thrive in loving homes with the proper nutrition and care. Wild animals tend to thrive when their natural habitat is preserved. Plants thrive when they receive the right amount of sunlight and water. A person might begin to thrive in their career when they work at a place where their talents are appreciated and they’re given the freedom to try new things. The adjective thriving can be used to describe someone or something that is developing successfully or that is being successful. Example: Being around other creative people really helps my writing thrive.
Synonym Usage
See succeed.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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thrivesimple
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thrivessimple
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have thrivedperfect
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have thrivenperfect
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has thrivedperfect
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has thrivenperfect
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am thrivingprogressive
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are thrivingprogressive
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is thrivingprogressive
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have been thrivingperfect progressive
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has been thrivingperfect progressive
Past
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thrivedsimple
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throvesimple
-
had thrivedperfect
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had thrivenperfect
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was thrivingprogressive
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were thrivingprogressive
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had been thrivingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of thrive
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English thriven, from Old Norse thrīfast “to thrive,” reflexive of thrīfa “to grasp”
Explanation
To thrive is to do well or flourish. If your new cookie delivery business thrives, you'll be rolling in dough — not literally, of course. The verb thrive means to flourish or grow vigorously, and it can be applied to something like a business or to the health of someone or something. Plants can thrive in a greenhouse, and children can thrive if they eat well and exercise. To thrive on or in something can also be used more figuratively — people can thrive on music, listening to their favorite songs all day and others can thrive on art, visiting their favorite galleries and museums.
Vocabulary lists containing thrive
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
To judge from the lines of young, very devoted fans snaking around the cemetery, Geese has already built the requisite subculture to thrive longer-term.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Instead of helping tumors thrive, it shifted the surrounding environment toward one that favored the immune system's attack on cancer.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
The Citi team note that trend-following strategies, which typically thrive in stagflationary environments, are coming off a strong month.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
Harvard’s president at the time, Charles Eliot, later admitted that his university’s graduate school “did not thrive, until the example of Johns Hopkins forced our Faculty” to invest in it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
But if the giant sequoias—trees that had evolved not just to withstand wildfires but to thrive in them—if the giant sequoias were burning, the cycle was broken.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Leveraging cuteness to sell products isn’t exactly a new phenomenon — just ask the toy industry, which thrives on getting kids and young adults invested in collecting new cute or cuddly products.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
And at a time when everyone is chasing hard contact, Simpson thrives by doing the exact opposite.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
The grape is also grown in places like New York’s Finger Lakes, the Pacific Northwest and in Eastern Europe, but Austria is where it thrives best.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Pigeon Forge, Tenn., like many regional gems, thrives from its proximity to nearby towns but is a haul and a half to get to from Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
You forget that she thrives on sentimentality almost as much as Les does.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
Trend-following funds thrived in 2022, when both stocks and bonds struggled as the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to quash rapid inflation.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
Schneider Electric, the maker of electrical equipment that has thrived from the AI build-out, on Monday struck a $23 billion deal to buy an industrial-design software company at a bargain-basement valuation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
The market thrived on a river trade route to India, which had become a lifeline.
From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026
In stark contrast, since their introduction from North America in the 19th Century, greys have thrived at the expense of their distant cousins, which compete for habitats and carry lethal viruses.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
As the findings from Sungir testify, mammoth-hunters did not just survive in the frozen north—they thrived.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Most of what we could call our charismatic megaflora was hauled in here from elsewhere, and it throve.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2021
Japan’s economy wilted while Germany’s throve, adding several hundred thousand clean-energy jobs—part of the energy transition’s net macroeconomic benefit.
From Forbes ● Jun. 28, 2014
It’s a reminder, however, that even in the most horrific of circumstances, something remarkable more than survived; it throve and grew and eventually reached around the Earth.
From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2013
Shanghai catered to the mind as well as the body, however, and ideas and ideologies throve and warred in its fevered atmosphere.
From Time Magazine Archive
When other commands complained and sulked in the Georgia climate, and crowded the hospitals, these mountaineers throve and said nothing.
From The Code of the Mountains by Charles Neville Buck
In England, gorillas have recently lived and thriven amazingly because the keepers now put plate glass between them and the staring crowds.
From Time Magazine Archive
The two Tortoises which survived have, as I said, now lived on my premises and thriven for three and four years.
From Addresses & Papers / Collectanea by Peter Eade
"You seem to have thriven on it," said the Doctor.
From A Cry in the Wilderness by Mary E. (Mary Ella) Waller
But it is by such as you—and succeeding generations of millions of such—that the great Tree of Empire has thriven, thrives, and still keeps in abundant foliage!
From A Cry in the Wilderness by Mary E. (Mary Ella) Waller
From that time the monastery founded by St. Pirmin had thriven and flourished; a hot-bed of monastic erudition, of considerable repute, in German lands.
From Ekkehard. Vol. I (of II) A Tale of the Tenth Century by Joseph Victor von Scheffel
Like so many waves of refugees before and after, these are people who took huge risks to survive, and many of them, like Omar, are thriving.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
After centuries thriving in the Po basin, producers are now trying dry-seeding, which works without continuous flooding.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
Abstract claims that the American dream is still thriving mean little to young people who are postponing homeownership and feel that financial security is slipping out of reach.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
"So it's great to see them actually thriving already."
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
This farm was living and thriving today just 150 miles from Washington, D.C.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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