Noun

(en noun)

That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […], "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.}}

A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.

An individual object or distinct entity.

(informal) Something that is normal or generally recognised.

(legal) Whatever can be owned.

The latest fad or fashion.

(in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment.

(informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods.

(informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.

(slang) A penis.

* 1959 , , (Naked Lunch) , 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:

“Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing .”

A living being or creature.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}

That which matters; the crux.

* 1914 , Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, The Movie Man] [playscript:

Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing . (in reference to the execution of Fernandez)

(chiefly, historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.

* 1974 , Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga , translated by Haraldur Bessason, page 46:

In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, [...]

* 1974', Jakob Benediktsson, ''Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis'', in ''Saga Íslands'', quoted in '''1988 by Jesse L. Byock in ''Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 85:

The goðar'' seem both to have received payment of ''thing-fararkaup from those who stayed home and at the same time compensated those who went to the thing , and it cannot be seen whether they had any profit from these transactions.

* 1988 , Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 59:

All Icelandic things were skap-thing , meaning that they were governed by established procedure and met at regular legally designated intevals at predetermined meeting places.

Noun

(commodities)

(obsolete) Convenience; usefulness, suitability.

Anything movable (a good) that is bought and sold.

* 1995 , James G. Carrier, Gifts and Commodities: Exchange and Western Capitalism Since 1700 , p.122

If a key part of shopping is the conversion of anonymous commodities into possessions, shopping is a cultural as much as an economic activity.

* 2001 , Rachel Pain, Introducing Social Geographies , p.26

In human geography "commodities'" usually refers to goods and services which are bought and sold. The simplest ' commodities are those produced by the production system just before they are sold.

* 2005 , William Leiss, Botterill, Jacki, Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace , p.307

*:* Referring to the work of Bourdieu, Zukin (2004,38) notes that shopping is much more than the purchase of commodities

Something useful or valuable.

* 2008 , Jan. 14th, Somerset County Gazette

And Slade said: "It really makes me sad that football club chairmen and boards seem to have lost that most precious commodity - patience. "Sam's sacking at Newcastle had, I suppose, been on the cards for a while, but it is really ridiculous to fire a manager after such a short time.

(obsolete) Self-interest; personal convenience or advantage.

*, I.40:

Shall we employ the intelligence Heaven hath bestowed upon us for our greatest good, to our ruine? repugning natures desseign and the universal order and vicissitude of things, which implieth that every man should use his instruments and meanes for his owne commoditie ?

*, NYRB, 2001, vol.1, p.321:

they commonly respect their own ends, commodity is the steer of all their action.

(economics) Raw materials, agricultural and other primary products as objects of large-scale trading in specialized exchanges.

The price of crude oil is determined in continuous trading between professional players in World's many commodities exchanges.

(marketing) Undifferentiated goods characterized by a low profit margin, as distinguished from branded products.

Although they were once in the forefront of consumer electronics, the calculators have become a mere commodity .

(Marxism) Anything which has both a use-value and an exchange-value.