Throng Meaning
/θɹɒŋ/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA group of people crowded or gathered closely together.
nounA group of things; a host or swarm.
Sentence Examples
The throng protested against abortion.
He was surrounded by a throng of reporters.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The market square was filled with a huge ____ of shoppers during the sale.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A huge ____ of people gathered in the main square to hear the important announcement from the local leaders today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English throng, thrang, from Old English þrang, ġeþrang (“crowd, press, tumult”), from Proto-Germanic *þrangwą, *þrangwō (“throng”), from *þrangwaz (“pressing, narrow”), from *þrinhwaną (“to press, to push; to force”), from Proto-Indo-European *trenkʷ- (“to beat; pound; hew; press”). Cognate with Dutch drang, German Drang. Compare also German Gedränge (“throng”) and Persian ترنجیدن (Trenjidan, “to beat, to push”). Compare typologically crowd (see there for more).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Not to know me argues yourselves unknown,
The lowest of your throng."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
"Perhaps you suppose this throng / Can't keep it up all day long?"
— 1885, Gilbert and Sullivan, The Mikado, act 1:
"Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels."
— 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
"Here, mingled with the Persians, who were rushing to the higher ground with the same effort as ourselves, we remained motionless until sunrise of the next day, so crowded together that the bodies of the slain, held upright by the throng, could nowhere find room to fall, and that in front of me a soldier with his head cut in two, and split into equal halves by a powerful sword stroke, was so pressed on all sides that he stood erect like a stump."
— 1939, Ammianus Marcellinus, John Carew Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus, volume 1, Harvard University Press, page 463:
"I imagine throngs of people – well-dressed, sipping spritzes – in front of a boat that, to me, is a coffin which held 700 people."
— 2019 May 12, Lorenzo Tondo, “I have seen the tragedy of Mediterranean migrants. This ‘art’ makes me feel uneasy”, in The Guardian:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The market square was filled with a huge ____ of shoppers during the sale.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A huge ____ of people gathered in the main square to hear the important announcement from the local leaders today.