themselves
pronCA, US, UK /ðɛmˈsɛlvz/ · AU, NZ /ðemˈselvz/
Etymology Morphologically them + -selves.
1
Pronoun, Third person The reflexive case of they, the third-person plural personal pronoun. The group of people, animals, or objects previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis).
- They’ve hurt themselves.
- They fought among themselves.
3 more examples
- They are going to try climbing Mount Everest themselves.
- The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- The real drama came as these two camps fought for undecideds, who literally found themselves in the middle.2008 February 17, Jennifer Finney Boylan, “At the Maine Caucuses, a Tough Nut to Crack”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022:
2
Pronoun, Third person The reflexive case of they, the third-person singular personal pronoun. The single person previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis).
- Would whoever stole my phone please make themselves known.
- I don't want anyone to fight among themselves.
4 more examples
- Everyone must do it themselves.
- Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Philippians 2:3:
- In fact she was so busy doing all the things that anyone might, who finds themselves alone in an empty house, that she did not notice at first when it began to turn dusk and the rooms to grow dim.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 18:
- “Anyone who has experienced or witnessed an anaphylaxis reaction knows it can be very stressful deciding when to inject epinephrine to themselves or a child and often delay,” Dr. Jonathan Spergel, chief of the allergy program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a news release from ARS Pharmaceuticals.2024 August 9, Meg Tirrell, “First nasal spray epinephrine drug for emergency allergic reactions gets FDA approval”, in CNN:
- Related terms
54 terms
Ime, me, myselfmemysen, mine, mymineme, we, us, ourselvesourselfoursen, oursourn, our, you, yourselfyoursen, yoursyourn, your, thou, thee, thyselftheeselfthysen, thine, thythine, youye, yourselves, you ally'all you guys yous, y'allselves, all yours y'all's you guys' your guys', all your y'all's your all's you guys' your guys', he, him, himselfhisselfhissen, hishisn, his, she, her, herselfhersen, hershern, ithit, itselfhitself, itshis, itshishits, they, them, themself, theirs, their, one, oneself, –, one's, themhem, 'em, themselvestheirsen, theirstheirn, The following table shows a list of English personal pronoun, including archaic and dialectal forms. Dialectal and obsolete, archaic forms are in italics. 1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronoun.