things

The word things can mean a lot of… things. Most of the time, the words thing and things are the ones being used in place of more specific words. But there are other general terms you can use instead.

The word things can refer to anything—it can refer to physical objects or articles but also to nonphysical entities. The word items can be used for tangible things (as in We have a few new items in stock) or intangible ones (as in There are a few items on the agenda).

The word ones is sometimes used as a stand-in for things (see the preceding sentence).

The word something can be used to refer to an undetermined or unspecified thing.

The pronoun it is commonly used to refer to something without naming it. The plural pronoun they can be used to refer to multiple things in this way.

The word stuff can be used to collectively refer to a bunch of things, especially a collection of miscellaneous physical objects, but also informally to a collection of intangible things like events or occurrences (as in A lot of stuff happened today), actions or activities (as in There is plenty of stuff you can do to stay busy), topics (as in We learned a lot of stuff in that class), and other stuff.

Sometimes, the word things is used more specifically to mean belongings, as in These are not my things—they must be someone else’s. 

Objects of commerce (things that are bought and sold) are often generally referred to as goods.

The word things is often somewhat informal. When referring to tangible things, the word objects is less informal. The word items is also a way to be more formal and can refer to tangible or intangible things.

One potential opposite for the word things is the word nothing—if you don’t have any things, you have nothing.

For example:

• “How many things are on the agenda?”
• “None—there is nothing on the agenda.”