Other forms: thicknesses
Thickness is how far it is through something from one face to the other. Measure the thickness, wall thickness, of even thickness.
It is the third dimension after length and width, and it is what a micrometer measures. In cooking and paint it means consistency instead — the thickness of a sauce. Note that thickness is a fixed property while depth is measured from a surface downward, which is why a board has thickness and a pool has depth.
1nounthicknessHow far it is through something from one face to the other.
“Measure the thickness of the board before you buy screws for it.”
2nounconsistencyConsistency, of a liquid.
“Stir the sauce until it reaches the thickness of cream.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
thickness is a measurement.
Old English thicnes is thick plus -ness. Thicket and thicken come from the same thick.
Proto-West Germanic
*þikkwīnassī — thickness
Old English
þicnes — thickness, viscosity, density, hardness; obscurity, cloud, darkness; thicket; depth, a thick body, anything thick or heavy
Middle English
thikkenesse
English, today
thickness
From Middle English thikkenesse, thiknesse, from Old English þicnes (“thickness, viscosity, density, hardness; obscurity, cloud, darkness; thicket; depth, a thick body, anything thick or heavy”), from Proto-West Germanic þikkwīnassī (“thickness”), equivalent to thick + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian tsjokkens (“thickness”), Old High German dickinessī, dikkinissi, diknissi (“thickness, density”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English crassitude (“thickness”) from Latin crassitūdō (“thickness”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA