A thousand thou Crossword Clue

The solution for the clue "A thousand thou" from Wall Street Journal crossword puzzle is mentioned here below. .

Understanding Today's Crossword Puzzle

In today's crossword puzzle, the clue is "A thousand thou" and the answer is "MIL". This answer is derived from the abbreviation "mil" which stands for "thousand" in the metric system. Let's delve deeper into why this clue leads us to "MIL".

1. Clue: "A thousand thou" - This clue indicates that we are looking for a term that equates to a quantity of one thousand.

2. Abbreviation: "MIL" - The answer "MIL" is a shortened form of the word "million", often used in financial contexts. It can represent a quantity or value of one million. However, in this crossword clue, it is used as an abbreviation for "thousand" to match the clue's requirement.

3. Usage: In the metric system, the prefix "milli-" represents a factor of 0.001 or one-thousandth. When combined with a base unit like meter, kilogram, or liter, "milli-" denotes a smaller measure, such as millimeter, milligram, or milliliter. Similarly, "MIL" is an abbreviation for "millions" but is used colloquially to represent "thousands" in the context of crossword puzzles, financial figures, or large numeral descriptions such as distances or quantities.

4. Crossword Context: Crossword puzzles often require concise and clever wordplay to arrive at the correct answer. In this case, the clue "A thousand thou" cleverly misdirects the solver by using the term "thou" as a synonym for "thousand". However, it leads to the unexpected abbreviation "MIL" instead of a word with the common thousand-fold suffix like "K" for kilo or "KIL" for kilo-liter.

Overall, the crossword clue "A thousand thou" with the answer "MIL" plays with the abbreviation's alternate usage and tricks the puzzle solver into thinking outside the expected word forms. By utilizing the metric system's abbreviation for "thousand" rather than a traditional word representation, the clue challenges the solver's ability to decipher clever wordplay and think beyond conventional solutions.

Definition of "MIL"

millimetres.

Example :

the insurance company coughed up five mil

she's plated in the bows with steel eighteen mil thick

I've never quite lived up to my MIL's expectations

 The Crossword clue "A thousand thou" published 7 time/s & has 1 answer/s. 

Crossword	Date	Answer
Wall Street Journal	9 August 2018	MIL
USA Today	28 April 2017	MIL
Universal	28 February 2013	MIL
Newsday.com	12 July 2009	MIL