thicket

noun

thick·​et ˈthi-kət 

1

: a dense growth of shrubbery or small trees : copse

2

: something resembling a thicket in density or impenetrability : tangle

a political thicket

a thicket of reporters

thickety

ˈthi-kə-tē 

adjective

Synonyms

• boscage
• boskage
• bosk
• bosque
• bosquet
• brake
• brushwood
• chaparral
• coppice
• copse
• covert

Examples of thicket in a Sentence

a dense thicket of rosebushes

flushed a pheasant from a thicket of willows

Recent Examples on the Web

Either in an Elite Eight game that should be a Final Four game, or earlier in the especially thorny thicket that’s facing them as the lowest top seed? —Mirjam Swanson, Orange County Register, 16 Mar. 2025

Just consider the agony of merging two or more sprawling thickets of technology. —Forbes, 7 Mar. 2025

The area sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Currituck Sound is packed with maritime forests, sand dunes, and shrub thickets, all untouched, all wild, and all waiting patiently for visitors to explore. —Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 22 Feb. 2025

All of this obviously presents a thicket of conflict-of-interest problems that are wholly unprecedented in scope and scale. —Allison Stanger, The Conversation, 7 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English *thikket, from Old English thiccet, from thicce thick

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for thicket

• chicot
• cricket
• picket
• picot
• ticket
• wicket

Kids Definition

thicket

noun

thick·​et ˈthik-ət 

1

: a thick usually small patch of shrubbery, small trees, or underbrush

2

: something resembling a thicket in being crowded together or impenetrable

a thicket of fans