Thaught Vs Thought, Are These Words Similar? How To Use Them

In our day-to-day life, we will get many cases of words that we may be using incorrectly. Sometimes, this happens because there are words with a similar spelling or pronunciation. When this happens, we are faced with famous homophones. Homophones are terms that are spelled differently but pronounced the same.

 

The words “thaugth” and “thought” are not similar. “Thaught” is an alternative spelling of the word “thwart.” “Thwart” means to oppose, preventing a goal from being accomplished. While “thought” as a noun implies an idea or opinion that occurs in a person’s mind, it is a thought. 

 

When analyzing the words “thaught” and “thought,” we see that they have a similar but not exact spelling. Although they have a reasonably identical pronunciation, they do not mean the same thing. They are words that could be classified as homophones if we are not too strict with the rules. The reason for saying that they are practically homophones is that they have a very similar pronunciation. This resemblance makes it difficult to tell them apart when someone else pronounces them. We will dedicate this article to understanding a little more about these terms, their origins, and their uses for all these reasons.

Definition And Origin Of The Word “Thaught” – “Thwart”

As we have clarified, the word “thaught” is an alternative and colloquial form of the word “thwart.” For this reason, we will take “thwart” as our root term to do the complete analysis. Recall that everything related to the definition, origin, and uses of “thwart” applies to its derivative thaught.

Definition Of “Thwart”

“Thwart” is a word that has several meanings in contemporary life. Some of its purposes may be more familiar than others. To clear up any doubts about this term, we are going to list its main definitions.

As A Verb

• “Thwart” is to oppose successfully. It is to impede or frustrate something.
• It means to stand or move through something. This definition and usage are already obsolescent.

As A Noun

• It is a nautical term meaning the seat on the other side of a boat and is the place of the oarsman.

As An Adjective

• It is to pass or be on the other side.
• It is a term to qualify something or someone as archaic.
• Qualifier to say that someone is perverse or stubborn.

As An Adverb

• It is an adverb that means through.

Origin Of The Word “Thwart”

“Thwart” is a word that comes from Middle English. However, there was already a similar word in Old English, which was “thweorh.” To this word, the people of the time gave various meanings: cross, perverse, angry, or creepy.

• This word and usage disappeared but reappeared as an adverb from Old Norse related to the term thvert. This word has an Indo-European root shared with Latin torquere or twist. When translated into English, people defined it as something crosswise.
• When we go back in time, it is harder to get solid evidence about the birth of the term. However, the word was associated with something that stood in the middle of the road.
• We can also find records of the word around the year 1250. People used the term to refer to someone who stood in the way, was clumsy or stubborn.
• The use of thwart as a verb appeared around the same time. It also had the meaning of opposing or hindering. The modern meaning we give to the word appeared in the late 16th century.
• The definition of “thwart” related to the nautical world appeared in the early 18th century. In this context, a “thwart” is the seat of a vessel placed side to side or crosswise. Before this time, this seat was called thoft, which meant squatting. But by the 18th century, the word “thoft” had fallen into disuse and was replaced by “thwart”.

Definition And Origin Of The Word “Thought”

As defined above, “thought” as a noun is an idea or opinion that occurs in people’s minds; it is a thought. “Thought” as a verb indicates the past tense and past participle of “think.” But beyond all of this, it is a word with a vast depth of meaning. It is a term that has practical applications in countless fields of science and humanity.

Definition Of “Thought”

“Thought” is a concept that encompasses a set of ideas and associations that allow us to reach logical conclusions. Additionally, “thought” is an activity linked to the existential values of all of us. However, even in our modern times, we have no consensus on defining it or interpreting it correctly.

 

“Thought” is present in multiple fields of human life. It is very complex to properly analyze its physical and metaphysical origin and its impact on our lives. “Thought” is the central pillar of many academic disciplines such as philosophy, linguistics, psychology, science, neuroscience, medicine, artificial intelligence, biology, sociology, and many more.

 

This word provides endless hours of analysis, theories, and fascinating information for everything that represents human life.

Origin Of The Word “Thought”

There are no records of specific dates of the appearance of this term for the first time. What we do know is that the word thought comes from Old English. People initially defined it as the process of thinking, an idea, or compassion.

 

Other versions link the term thought with several German root words such as:

• Gedächtnis, meaning memory.
• Andacht, meaning attention and devotion.
• Bedacht, meaning consideration, deliberation.

How Do People Use The Words “Thwart”/”Thaught” And “Thought”?

The terms we are analyzing offer us an impressive versatility of uses. Likely, we are only using a small part of the wide range of possibilities available to us. Below we will look at the primary uses of each of these words.

Primary Uses Of “Thaught” – “Thwart”

• When we want to oppose, go against something, contravene, defeat or frustrate anything, situation or person.
• When we want to move through. To cross something.
• When we mean to say that something is moving obliquely or crosswise.
• To qualify something or someone as perverse.
• To refer to the seat of a ship.
• When we are in opposition to something. To collide with something.
• When something is transverse.

Primary Uses Of “Thought”

• When we reflect on our thoughts.
• When we want to refer to an idea or occurrence.
• When we realize that intellectual activity can also wear us out physically.
• When we want to say that, we will focus all our thoughts on a particular activity.
• When we have a reflection on something in particular.
• When we want to do meditation activities.
• When we anticipate some event or situation.

Examples Of The Use Of These Words

We are already in the home stretch of our learning today. All the analysis we have done so far will pay off when we use this knowledge in our daily lives. Many times to finish fixing the concepts we have learned, we need to put them into practice. For this reason, we will see concrete examples of sentences where we will use the words “thwart” and “thought.”

Examples With Thwart

• We must thwart their attack attempts before it is too late.
• The police ask people to lock all their doors to thwart any attempts by thieves.
• The results of economic policies thwart the population.
• I get significantly thwarted when I go to the supermarket and don’t get my favorite brand.

Examples With Thought

• My nephew thought that that new video game was an action game.
• I thought we were friends, but I was wrong.
• Mary put all her thoughts in a book of poems.
• I always thought she would adjust to her new home.

A Final Thought On Today’s Words

Lack of knowledge has affected our communications. We are constantly sending messages through multiple avenues. Unfortunately, sometimes the messages we send are not understood the way we would like them to be.

Often, the person receiving the message does not even realize the error in the communication. This misunderstanding is why the proper use of words is so important at all times. It is crucial to speak and write in the right way. That is why we must go deeper into learning about words, their uses, and what differentiates them from other seemingly similar words.