hundreds and thousands
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hundreds and thousands
- /ˌhʌndɹəds n̩ ˈθaʊz(ə)ndz/ UK
- /ˌhʌndɹəds n̩ ˈθaʊz(ə)n(d)z/ US
Where it comes from
PIE word
*ḱm̥tóm
From hundreds + and + thousands. Sense 2 (“tiny balls or strands of multicoloured sugar”) is from the fact that the confectionery is made up of numerous sugar pieces.
noun 100s and 1000s · 100s & 1000s
- An indefinite but emphatically large number. 1864 September 12, W. T. Sherman, letter to James M. Calhoun, E. E. Rawson and S. C. Wells, representing City Council of Atlanta, published in 1865, Joel Tyler Headley, Grant and Sherman: Their Campaigns and Generals, 2008, page 592, I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississip
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Tiny balls or strands of multicoloured sugar, sprinkled over ice cream, desserts or party foods.
So there you have them - Onoda, Gund, Eclipse - all squidged together on the same spoon, their flavours intermingling under a bleeding crust of hundreds-and-thousands.
Similar: nonpareil, nonpareils, sprinkles, hundreds and thousands, jimmies, spreckles, sugar strands
Translations
Every language
noun indefinite but emphatically large number
| Italiano | centinaia di migliaia |
|---|---|
| العربية | آلافٌ مُؤَلَّفَة ʔālāfun muʔallafa |
Talk about this word "hundreds and thousands." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/hundreds%20and%20thousands. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. hundreds and thousands. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/hundreds%20and%20thousands "hundreds and thousands." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/hundreds%20and%20thousands.Cite this
@misc{hundreds_and_thousands_2026,
title = {hundreds and thousands},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/hundreds%20and%20thousands},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
