think tank

noun

: an institute, corporation, or group organized to study a particular subject (such as a policy issue or a scientific problem) and provide information, ideas, and advice

an information technology think tank

… was responsible for the armies of new political-action committees, lobbyists and rightward think tanks that poured into Washington to counter the consumer and environmental movements he helped to inspire.

—Jonathan Rowe

Examples of think tank in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Taxpayers in Louisiana who earn between $30,000 to $40,000 a year, the largest number of taxpayers in any bracket in the state, will see their state taxes reduced by 50%, to $338 a year, according to analysis from RESET Louisiana, a nonpartisan public policy think tank. —Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 1 Jan. 2025

Kevin Roberts, president of the think tank behind Project 2025, spoke at a December event with investors at the club. —Adriana Gomez Licon and Michelle L. Price, Los Angeles Times, 31 Dec. 2024

Outside government, too, a network of U.S. scholars, think tank researchers, activists, and former officials that support nonproliferation have engaged in parallel Track II dialogues with South Korean elites in an attempt to dissuade them from nuclearization. —Robert E. Kelly, Foreign Affairs, 30 Dec. 2024

And in nearly two dozen cities, shoplifting appeared to be on the rise, according to the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank. —Isabelle Taft, New York Times, 30 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1958, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

think tank

noun

: an organization formed to think up new solutions especially for social and scientific problems