Meaning & use
thyme
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
A small plant with tiny fragrant leaves that are used fresh or dried to flavor food.
Grammar: Usually uncountable when it means the herb in cooking: add some thyme.
Patterns
- a sprig of thyme
- season something with thyme
She added a sprig of thyme to the soup.
Roast chicken tastes wonderful with garlic and thyme.
We grow thyme in a pot on the kitchen windowsill.
nouncountabletechnical
One of several species of this low-growing plant, often planted in gardens or found on dry hillsides.
Grammar: Countable when it refers to a type of plant: wild thymes grow on the hill.
Creeping thyme covers the garden path with tiny purple flowers.
Bees love the wild thyme growing on the hillside.
Word forms
| plural | thymes |
|---|
Common combinations
- fresh thyme
- Strip the leaves from the fresh thyme and stir them in.
- dried thyme
- Use half a teaspoon of dried thyme instead.
- a sprig of thyme
- Tie a sprig of thyme to the roast.
- lemon thyme
- Lemon thyme gives fish a bright flavor.
- wild thyme
- The air smelled of wild thyme.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- thymol noun
- an antiseptic substance obtained from thyme oil
- thymy adjective
- smelling or tasting of thyme
Commonly confused: thyme or time?
thyme vs time
Thyme sounds the same as time, but it is the herb, while time refers to hours and minutes.
Practice
Which word names a herb that sounds exactly like the word for hours and minutes?
Choose one answer.
Thyme is pronounced /taɪm/, the same as time. Mint, sage and basil are herbs but sound different.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “thyme”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.