Thoreau

American  

[thuh-roh, thawr-oh, thohr-oh] / θəˈroʊ, ˈθɔr oʊ, ˈθoʊr oʊ /

noun

1. Henry David, 1817–62, U.S. naturalist and author.

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Thoreau British  

/ ˈθɔːrəʊ, θɔːˈrəʊ /

noun

1. Henry David. 1817–62, US writer, noted esp for Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), an account of his experiment in living in solitude. A powerful social critic, his essay Civil Disobedience (1849) influenced such dissenters as Gandhi

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Other Word Forms

• Thoreauvian
  adjective

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Thoreau

It was Thoreau who remarked that “the transcendental philosophy needs the leaven of humor to render it light and digestible,” and one wishes at times that Mr. Nichols wrote with a lighter touch.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

When Thoreau spews nonsense, such as men, “like the earth, revolve mainly from west to east, and so are flattened at the poles,” let’s call the silliness by its real name.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

When most people think of the foundational figures in American environmentalism, they likely conjure up such wistful white Transcendentalists as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott.

From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2026

He chortles as Thoreau gets sick over a quahog.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

Turning pages, feeling the paper, I wonder if any of the trees from Thoreau’s forest are still alive and wonder what Thoreau would think today if he could visit my small pond and eucalyptus grove.

From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson