thicket
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
A Burnham-led government should look at cutting the "thicket of regulation" and simplify the "stupendously complex" tax code, Haldane believes.
From BBC • Jun. 26, 2026
The trade-off for markets, and indeed for the economy as a whole, is whether a Warsh-led Fed, and its pursuit of independence, can navigate the thicket of complexity expected over the coming year.
From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026
Operating data centers in space would avoid an environmental thicket and require less water and energy for cooling.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026
Her delighted scrolling through a thicket of ads on a clickbait article on a tip Brad Pitt left someone is a little comic gem.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 3, 2025
Foreseeing danger, he urged the companions to hurry across the open meadow and find cover in 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.
