Examples of thing in a Sentence What is that thing on the floor? He is good at making things out of clay. My doctor told me to avoid fatty things like donuts and potato chips. We must respect all living things.

Thing is an example of vague language. It allows speakers not to sound too direct. We often use thing in phrases such as things like that, that kind of thing: They’re cooking lots of different Italian and Spanish dishes and things like that. When I worked in a newspaper office, there wasn’t time for eating lunch or that kind of thing, you know.

A noun is a word that names something, such as a person, place, thing, or idea. In a sentence, nouns can play the role of subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, appositive, or modifier.