What does Thule mean?

Definitions for Thule
ˈθu li for 1,2 ; ˈtu- for 3,4thule

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Thule.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. Thulenoun

    a town in northwestern Greenland; during World War II a United States naval base was built there

  2. Thule, ultima Thulenoun

    the geographical region believed by ancient geographers to be the northernmost land in the inhabited world

Wiktionary

  1. Thulenoun

    the ancestors of the Canadian Inuit

  2. Thulenoun

    the northernmost location of the ancient world

  3. Etymology: From Θούλη.

Wikipedia

  1. Thule

    Thule ( Greek: Θούλη, translit. Thoúlē; Latin: Thūlē) is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, northern Scotland, the island of Saaremaa (Ösel) in Estonia, and the Norwegian island of Smøla.In classical and medieval literature, ultima Thule (Latin "farthest Thule") acquired a metaphorical meaning of any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world".By the Late Middle Ages and early modern period, the Greco-Roman Thule was often identified with the real Iceland or Greenland. Sometimes Ultima Thule was a Latin name for Greenland, when Thule was used for Iceland. By the late 19th century, however, Thule was frequently identified with Norway. Indeed, many of the settlers of Iceland were fleeing Harald Fairhair's recent unification of Norway, prominent among them the Thelir of Telemark (Thylemark). Thelir from neighbouring Grenland may have similarly named Greenland. In 1910, the explorer Knud Rasmussen established a missionary and trading post in north-western Greenland, which he named "Thule" (later Qaanaaq). Thule has given its name to the northernmost United States Space Force base, Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland.

ChatGPT

  1. thule

    Thule is a term with several meanings. It is often associated with the farthest north location in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography, presumed to be located somewhere in the Atlantic region. Thule is also the name of a town in Greenland, home to one of the northernmost air bases in the world, Thule Air Base, maintained by the United States Air Force. Moreover, "Thule" is also used in physics to refer to an undiscovered element, Thulium, in the periodic table. Additionally, Thule is the name of a Swedish company that sells outdoor and transportation products.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Thulenoun

    the name given by ancient geographers to the northernmost part of the habitable world. According to some, this land was Norway, according to others, Iceland, or more probably Mainland, the largest of the Shetland islands; hence, the Latin phrase ultima Thule, farthest Thule

Wikidata

  1. Thule

    Thule, also spelled Thula, Thila, or Thyïlea, is, in classical European literature and maps, a region in the far north. Though often considered to be an island in antiquity, modern interpretations of what was meant by Thule often identify it as Norway, an identification supported by modern calculations. Other interpretations include Orkney, Shetland, and Scandinavia. In the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, Thule was often identified as Iceland or Greenland. Another suggested location is Saaremaa in the Baltic Sea. The term ultima Thule in medieval geographies denotes any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world". Sometimes it is used as a proper noun as the Latin name for Greenland when Thule is used for Iceland.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Thule

    thū′lē, n. the name generally given by the ancients to the most northerly part of Europe known to them, of which their want of knowledge was eked out by the imagination—the Orkney and Shetland groups, Iceland, &c. The usual Roman phrase was Ultima Thule. [L.,—Gr. thylē.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. thule

    [Gaelic thuath]. An extreme object to the north.

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of Thule in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of Thule in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of Thule in a Sentence

  1. Jeff Moore:

    In some sense, Ultima has a fairly simplified geology, a bit like Frankenstein here, ultima Thule has a lot more stuff here going on.

  2. Alan Stern:

    MU69 is Ultima Thule, our spacecraft is heading beyond the limits of the known worlds, to what will be this mission's next achievement. Since this will be the farthest exploration of any object in space in history, I like to call our flyby target Ultima, for short, symbolizing this ultimate exploration by NASA and our team.

  3. Alan Stern:

    Ultima Thule is beyond remarkable.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

Thule#10000#30514#100000

Translations for Thule

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"Thule." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 Nov. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/Thule>.

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