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Thule

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Thule¹

  • /ˈθjuːliː/ UK
  • /ˈtuːliː/ US
  • /θuːl/ UK
  • /θjuːl/ UK
  • /ˈtuːliː/ US, UK

Rhymes with -uːliː, -uːl

Where it comes from

From Classical Latin Thūlē, Thȳlē, from Ancient Greek Θούλη (Thoúlē), Θῡ́λη (Thū́lē), of unknown origin, cognate with Middle English Tīle, Tȳle, from Old English Thȳle, Thīla, Thīle (variants of Þȳle) and Medieval Latin Tīle.

proper noun Thulé, Thulê, Thulē, Thūlē, Tule [17ᵗʰ C.] · Thyle [17ᵗʰ C.] · Thylé · Thoule · Thoulê

  1. A mythical location in Arctic The semi-legendary island of classical antiquity considered to represent the northernmost location in the inhabited world (the Ecumene). I have reached these lands but newly // From an ultimate dim Thule.
  2. A place in Roman world The most northerly location known to have been explored in the Ancient Roman world
  3. A former settlement in Greenland, North America, of Denmark, on North Star Bay, Wolstenholme Fjord, off Bylot Sound, Baffin Bay, Arctic Ocean. A settlement in northwestern Greenland established in 1910 by the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen.
  4. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of Thule Base: A military base in Greenland An air base built on the site in the 1940s.

    Similar: Thule Air Base, Thule Space Base, Thule NORAD Base, Thule NATO Base, Thule Air Force Base, Thule Space Force Base, Pituffik, Pituffik Space Base, Pituffik Air Base, Pituffik NORAD Base, Pituffik NATO Base, Pituffik Air Force Base

  5. A locality in the Murray River council area, southern New South Wales, Australia.
  6. historical A nationalist and occultist group in Germany in the early 20th century, which included some of the founding members of the Nazi Party.
  7. The historical Eskimo culture extending from Alaska to Greenland between the 6th and 14th centuries.

Thule²

Where it comes from

Clipping of Ultima Thule. Coined in January 2019 by the NASA team investigators of the New Horizons program (see quotations below).

proper noun Thulé, Thulê, Thulē, Thūlē, Tule [17ᵗʰ C.] · Thyle [17ᵗʰ C.] · Thylé · Thoule · Thoulê

  1. A region on Ultima Thule in the Kuiper Belt of the Solar System. The smaller lobe of the trans-Neptunian object Ultima Thule, a contact binary object. For the purposes of discussion, MU₆₉’s larger and smaller lobes have been informally designated “Ultima” and “Thule,” respectively, by the New Horizons team. Ultima and Thule have best-fit measured diameters of ~19.5 and ~14.2km, respectively, with errors of only a few percent at this time.

Translations

Every language

name legendary island in the far north

한국어슐리 Syulli
日本語トゥーレ Tūre
中文图勒 Túlè
PortuguêsTule
FrançaisThulé
DeutschThule
ΕλληνικάΘούλη Thoúli
РусскийФула Fula

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Cite this
MLA

"Thule." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/thule. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

Thule. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/thule

Chicago

"Thule." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/thule.

BibTeX
@misc{thule_2026,
  title = {Thule},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/thule},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}