thicket
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of thicket
before 1000; Old English thiccet (not recorded in ME), equivalent to thicce thick + -et noun suffix
Explanation
A thicket refers to a dense growth of bushes or trees — what you try to avoid by tending to the plants in your backyard. The word thicket comes from the word thick, which means close together or dense. If you are "thick as thieves," then you are close friends. A thicket is a growth of trees, bushes, or shrubbery that is very close together, often making it difficult for people to walk through or for Red Riding Hood to find her way out of to Grandmother's.
Vocabulary lists containing thicket
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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This Week in Words: December 2 - 8, 2017
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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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.
Along a remote stretch of the north Somerset coast, views of rolling hills and farmhouses are suddenly interrupted by a thicket of construction cranes.
From BBC • Jan. 26, 2026
A thicket of partnerships has sprung up in autonomous driving, with Uber also working with Waymo in US cities Austin and Atlanta, and with China's WeRide in Gulf locations such as Abu Dhabi.
From Barron's • Nov. 12, 2025
It’s a verdant thicket of spindly branches that towers over a straw-hatted man in the shadow below, no doubt seeking respite from the heat.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 8, 2025
The facility sits notched into a thicket of pine trees, what locals call “the loggin’ woods.”
From Slate • May 2, 2025
Three Huntsmen pressed toward Fflewddur and the dwarf, forcing them into a thicket.
From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
