thousandth, a. and n.
(ˈθaʊzəndθ)
[f. thousand + -th1. Not found before 16th c.: cf. thousand 4.]
The ordinal numeral belonging to the cardinal thousand.
A. adj.
1. Coming last in order of a thousand successive individuals.
| 1552 Huloet, Thousandth, millesimus. 1656 tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 100 Though our computation reach the fixed stars, or the ninth or tenth, nay, the thousandth sphere. 1732 Pope Ess. Man i. 246 From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. 1875 Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. (ed. 5) vi. 77 Modern Germany proclaims the era of a.d. 843 the beginning of her national existence, and celebrated its thousandth anniversary thirty-two years ago. |
2. thousandth part: one of a thousand equal parts into which anything may be divided.
| 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer i. K ij, Ye felt not the thousandeth part of y⊇ delite. 1710 Berkeley Princ. Hum. Knowl. §127 The ten thousandth part of that line. 1782 Herschel in Phil. Trans. LXXII. 165 Pinions..so evenly divided as..to be depended upon..to perhaps the two, three, or four thousandth part of an inch. 1836 J. H. Newman Lyra Apost. (1849) 231 Lord! Who Thy thousand years dost wait To work the thousandth part Of Thy vast plan. |
B. n. A thousandth part.
| 1793 Young in Phil. Trans. LXXXIII. 174 In the ox's eye, the diameter of the crystalline is 700 thousandths of an inch. 1867 Denison Astron. without Math. 6 Inches about a thousandth longer than our inches. |