them

Those.

Determiner

  1. Those.
    • Gimme two of them yellow ones.
    • How would you like a scrummage, Andy, with them Scotchmen that stole your mother's chickens this morning? - 1835, John Pendleton Kennedy, Horse Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency:
    • The world 'as got me snouted jist a treat; / Crool Forchin's dirty left 'as smote me soul. / An' all them joys o' life I 'eld so sweet / Is up the pole. - 1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke, published...

Origin

Etymology tree Old Norse þeimbor. Middle English þem English them From Middle English þem, from Old Norse þeim.

Forms

dem

Pronoun

  1. Those ones.
    • She treated them for a cold.
    • Proponents of adding a gender-neutral option to state identification documents say it would remove a form of discrimination against nonbinary people by providing them with the means to carry identification that matches...

    1. Used as the direct object of a verb.

    2. Used as the indirect object of a verb.

      • She wrote them a letter.

    3. Used as the object of a preposition.

      • Give it to them.

    4. (nonstandard or colloquial, uncommon) As a grammatical subject or object when joined with a conjunction.

      • [...] and now them and the Goo Goo Dolls are playing together.
      • […]Illinois, told Christina Holmes Tillson (just arrived from Connecticut herself) : “I am getting skeery about them 'ere Yankees. There is such a power of them coming in that them and the Injuns will squatch out...
      • Them and the boys went to live with Auntie Madge and Uncle Herbie when Miss Violet died. - 2021 June 10, Yvonne Bailey-Smith, The Day I Fell Off My Island, Myriad Editions, →ISBN:

    5. Used in isolation or apposition, or (sometimes proscribed) as the complement of the copula (be).

      • Who was there? —Them.
      • Who did this? —Them. They did it. (or:) It was them. They did it.)
      • Who did that? —(It was) not them: I was watching them the whole time.
  2. A single person, previously mentioned, whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or (since 21st c.) non-binary.
    • If a student has an inappropriate question, whatever you do, do not berate them.
    • If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, […] [t]hen shalt thou bring forth that man or that...
    • Place the casualty on their back with feet and legs raised—this is called the shock position. [emphasis in original] Once the casualty is positioned, cover them to preserve body heat, but do not overheat. - 2006, St....

    1. Used as the direct object of a verb.

    2. Used as the indirect object of a verb.

      • If one of my patients calls, please bring them their dinner.

    3. Used as the object of a preposition.

      • If someone comes and asks for the ticket, just give it to them.
      • Each adolescent girl with ASD has needs specific to her because each of them has variable characteristics and different degrees of sensory and perceptual difficulties. - 2024 July 2, Rukiye Arslan, Derya Yanık, Raziye...

    4. (nonstandard or colloquial, uncommon) As a grammatical subject or object when joined with a conjunction.

      • "[…] he said that everybody was being watched, and if they seen anybody giving Union cards to anybody on Company property, that them and the person receiving the card, they would both be fired. - 1969, United States....

    5. Used in isolation or apposition, or (sometimes proscribed) as the complement of the copula (be).

      • Who was there? —Them.
      • Who did this? —Them. They did it. (or:) It was them. They did it.)
      • Who did that? —(It was) not them: I was watching them the whole time.
  3. They or those.
    • I know it seems unfair, but them's the rules.
    • And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. - 1611, King James Bible:

Forms

of they dem

Synonyms

dem em 'em hem

Related

boydem gentlethem how about them apples how you get them is how you lose them if you can't beat them, join them if you can't lick them, join them let them eat cake mom and them some mothers do have them their theirs them all thembo themness them ones themself themselves them's the breaks them's the facts them's the rules them there they us-and-them us-and-them-ism