The preposition is pronounced /θru:/. In other cases, 'through' is pronounced /θru:/.
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
Note: In addition to the uses shown below, 'through' is used in phrasal verbs such as ‘see through’, ‘think through’, and ‘win through’.
1.
To move through something such as a hole, opening, or pipe means to move directly from one side or end of it to the other.
The theatre was evacuated when rain poured through the roof at the Liverpool Playhouse...
Go straight through that door under the EXIT sign...
Visitors enter through a side entrance...
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
He went straight through to the kitchen and took a can of beer from the fridge...
She opened the door and stood back to allow the man to pass through.
ADV : ADV after v
2.
To cut through something means to cut it in two pieces or to make a hole in it.
Use a proper fish knife and fork if possible as they are designed to cut through the flesh but not the bones...
Rabbits still manage to find a way in. I am sure that some have even taken to gnawing through the metal.
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
Score lightly at first and then repeat, scoring deeper each time until the board is cut through.
ADV : ADV after v
3.
To go through a town, area, or country means to travel across it or in it.
Go up to Ramsgate, cross into France, go through Andorra and into Spain.
...travelling through pathless woods...
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
Few know that the tribe was just passing through.
ADV : ADV after v
4.
If you move through a group of things or a mass of something, it is on either side of you or all around you.
We made our way through the crowd to the river...
Sybil’s fingers ran through the water...
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
He pushed his way through to the edge of the crowd where he waited.
ADV : ADV after v
5.
To get through a barrier or obstacle means to get from one side of it to the other.
Allow twenty-five minutes to get through Passport Control and Customs...
He was one of the last of the crowd to pass through the barrier...
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
...a maze of concrete and steel barriers, designed to prevent vehicles driving straight through.
ADV : ADV after v
6.
If a driver goes through a red light, they keep driving even though they should stop.
He was killed at a road junction by a van driver who went through a red light...
PREP
7.
If something goes into an object and comes out of the other side, you can say that it passes through the object.
The ends of the net pass through a wooden bar at each end...
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
I bored a hole so that the fixing bolt would pass through.
ADV : ADV after v
8.
To go through a system means to move around it or to pass from one end of it to the other.
...electric currents travelling through copper wires...
What a lot of cards you’ve got through the post!
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
It is also expected to consider a resolution which would allow food to go through immediately with fewer restrictions.
ADV : ADV after v
9.
If you see, hear, or feel something through a particular thing, that thing is between you and the thing you can see, hear, or feel.
Alice gazed pensively through the wet glass...
PREP
10.
If something such as a feeling, attitude, or quality, happens through an area, organization, or a person’s body, it happens everywhere in it or affects all of it.
An atmosphere of anticipation vibrated through the crowd...
What was going through his mind when he spoke those amazing words?...
PREP
11.
If something happens or exists through a period of time, it happens or exists from the beginning until the end.
She kept quiet all through breakfast.
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
We’ve got a tough programme, hard work right through to the summer...
ADV : ADV after v
12.
If something happens from a particular period of time through another, it starts at the first period and continues until the end of the second period. ( AM; in BRIT, use to )
...open Monday through Sunday from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm...
PREP
13.
If you go through a particular experience or event, you experience it, and if you behave in a particular way through it, you behave in that way while it is happening.
Men go through a change of life emotionally just like women.
PREP
14.
If you are through with something or if it is through , you have finished doing it and will never do it again. If you are through with someone, you do not want to have anything to do with them again.
I’m through with the explaining...
ADJ : v-link ADJ , oft ADJ with n
15.
You use through in expressions such as half-way through and all the way through to indicate to what extent an action or task is completed.
A thirty-nine-year-old competitor collapsed half-way through the marathon and died shortly afterwards.
PREP : n PREP n
•
Through is also an adverb.
Stir the pork about until it turns white all the way through.
ADV : n ADV
16.
If something happens because of something else, you can say that it happens through it.
They are understood to have retired through age or ill health...
PREP
17.
You use through when stating the means by which a particular thing is achieved.
Those who seek to grab power through violence deserve punishment...
PREP
18.
If you do something through someone else, they take the necessary action for you.
Do I need to go through my doctor or can I make an appointment direct?...
= via
PREP
19.
If something such as a proposal or idea goes through , it is accepted by people in authority and is made legal or official.
It is possible that the present Governor General will be made interim President, if the proposals go through...
ADV : ADV after v
•
Through is also a preposition.
They want to get the plan through Congress as quickly as possible.
PREP
20.
If someone gets through an examination or a round of a competition, they succeed or win.
She was bright, learned languages quickly, and sailed through her exams...
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
Nigeria also go through from that group.
ADV : ADV after v
21.
When you get through while making a telephone call, the call is connected and you can speak to the person you are phoning.
He may find the line cut on the telephone so that he can’t get through...
ADV : ADV after v
22.
If you look or go through a lot of things, you look at them or deal with them one after the other.
Let’s go through the numbers together and see if a workable deal is possible...
PREP
23.
If you read through something, you read it from beginning to end.
She read through pages and pages of the music I had brought her...
PREP
•
Through is also an adverb.
He read the article straight through, looking for any scrap of information that might have passed him by.
ADV : ADV after v
24.
A through train goes directly to a particular place, so that the people who want to go there do not have to change trains.
...Britain’s longest through train journey, 685 miles.
ADJ : ADJ n
25.
If you say that someone or something is wet through , you are emphasizing how wet they are.
I returned to the inn cold and wet, soaked through by the drizzling rain...
ADV : adj ADV [ emphasis ]
26.
Through and through means completely and to the greatest extent possible.
I’ve gotten my feet thoroughly soaked and feel frozen through and through...
PHRASE : usu n / adj PHR , PHR after v