# "Thru" is not a word **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734 "2013-11-12T17:40:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/1 "2013-11-12T17:40:46Z")
I notice this spelling fairly often, including on this message board, by people who seem to be making every effort to write well. Every other word is spelt correctly, but then this “thru” spelling shows up like a big turd in the middle of an otherwise immaculate lawn. What is it about writing the word “through” that makes people feel they don’t have time for an extra three key strokes? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/2 "2013-11-12T17:44:00Z")
When I was first hired as a machinist, I fought a losing battle about this very word. 15 years later, a thru hole goes all the way through the part, and that’s how it is. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/3 "2013-11-12T17:44:48Z")
What is it about through that it feels it deserves an unnecessary 3 letters? ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/4 "2013-11-12T17:45:22Z")
Agreed. Also rite and valu. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/5 "2013-11-12T17:45:48Z")
When you read “thru,” do you understand what it means? If so, that makes it a word. I know I’ve contested this in the past, but I’m not as sure as I used to be. Some shit takes time. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/6 "2013-11-12T17:47:17Z")
Also “lite.” The battle on that one has pretty much been lost, though. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/7 "2013-11-12T17:47:55Z")
Same goes for nite and lite. It’s newspeak, man. Ninja’d by **Cat Whsperer**. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/8 "2013-11-12T17:48:59Z")
I’ve kinda given up in stuff like that; in this text-based, 140-character world, spelling is now a form of shortcut, slang, or even dialect. “Thru” is the least of my worries 😉 Don’t like it, but I guess I get it. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/9 "2013-11-12T17:51:20Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > What is it about writing the word “through” that makes people feel they don’t have time for an extra three key strokes? The fact that “thru” saves three key strokes makes it worthwhile. It also is closer to a phonetic spelling, and avoids the confusion of through/though/tough. Spelling and pronunciation make little enough sense in English anyway. Every little bit helps. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/10 "2013-11-12T17:52:15Z")
You’ve been on a message board where every word was spelled correctly? Now you’re just making stuff up. If message boards were a lawn, there’d be brown splotches and crab grass everywhere, and gophers coming up out of their holes to moon the gardener. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/11 "2013-11-12T17:53:21Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > When you read “thru,” do you understand what it means? If so, that makes it a word… Yeah. If it conveys the meaning, then it counts. WTF does “_ough_” convey that “_u_” does not? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/12 "2013-11-12T17:54:03Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Same goes for nite and lite. It’s newspeak, man. Unless your definition of newspeak is “spellings that annoy me”, I fail to see how anything in this thread qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/13 "2013-11-12T17:57:36Z")
It’s been a word longer then you’ve been a person. First used **1839**. I use it as “they went thru the house” as opposed to “are you through?” leaving “through” for finished, etc, and “thru” for ways and paths, etc. The meaning is different, the spelling should be. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/14 "2013-11-12T18:00:33Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Unless your definition of newspeak is “spellings that annoy me”, I fail to see how anything in this thread qualifies. I guess I forgot the winky smilie. I thought the “man” would be enough to not take me seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/15 "2013-11-12T18:02:42Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > What is it about through that it feels it deserves an unnecessary 3 letters? > [@WordMan](#): > > I’ve kinda given up in stuff like that; in this text-based, 140-character world, spelling is now a form of shortcut, slang, or even dialect. “Thru” is the least of my worries 😉 > > Don’t like it, but I guess I get it. > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Yeah. If it conveys the meaning, then it counts. WTF does “_ough_” convey that “_u_” does not? > [@Shodan](#): > > The fact that “thru” saves three key strokes makes it worthwhile. It also is closer to a phonetic spelling, and avoids the confusion of through/though/tough. > > Spelling and pronunciation make little enough sense in English anyway. Every little bit helps. > > Regards, > Shodan I think you’re all kind of missing the point. I’m not just complaining about bad spelling, or lazy writing, or asking whether “through” should be correctly spelt “thru”. If all the words are spelt wrong, or most of them, or there are a few phonetic spellings, I know what’s going on. But when someone has written a long post where they have clearly at least tried to spell every other word correctly, I don’t get why “thru” shows up in there. It’s not really a special case for any reason I can see. “Through” might be a bit cumbersome and not very phonetic, but we don’t see people writing “tuff”. People write “tho” instead of “though”, but only if they’re deliberately misspelling to save effort. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/16 "2013-11-12T18:05:51Z")
I’ll try to quit using it soon. Is tonite early enough? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/17 "2013-11-12T18:10:29Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I think you’re all kind of missing the point. I’m not just complaining about bad spelling, or lazy writing, or asking whether “through” should be correctly spelt “thru”. If all the words are spelt wrong, or most of them, or there are a few phonetic spellings, I know what’s going on. But when someone has written a long post where they have clearly at least tried to spell every other word correctly, I don’t get why “thru” shows up in there. It’s not really a special case for any reason I can see. “Through” might be a bit cumbersome and not very phonetic, but we don’t see people writing “tuff”. People write “tho” instead of “though”, but only if they’re deliberately misspelling to save effort. I explained in post #13, and it’s **NOT** a misspelling. It’s a \*alternate \*spelling, and a good one as it has a purpose. It’s been a word for almost 200 years, what more do you want? So when I write “He went thru the house…” I am not misspelling “through”. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/18 "2013-11-12T18:11:05Z")
It’ll be tuff. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/19 "2013-11-12T18:20:22Z")
[Grammar Girl](http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/threw-through-thru) says: “My impression is that using the spelling t-h-r-u is kind of equivalent to dotting your i’s with little hearts: people will know what you mean, but they’ll think you aren’t a very serious person.” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734/20 "2013-11-12T18:27:15Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > [Grammar Girl](http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/threw-through-thru) says: “My impression is that using the spelling t-h-r-u is kind of equivalent to dotting your i’s with little hearts: people will know what you mean, but they’ll think you aren’t a very serious person.” Yeah, well she doesn’t even accept “donut”- she’s one of those useless grammar nazis that are holding back the language from evolving. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thru-is-not-a-word/673734.md?page=2)