they

pronoun sing. he, she, it

1. the persons, animals, or things previously mentioned: personal pronoun in the third person plural: they is the nominative form, them the objective, theirs the possessive, and themselves the reflexive and intensive; their is the possessive pronominal adjective
2. people they say it's so
3. the person or group just mentioned: used sometimes as a generic form with a collective antecedent such as everyone, somebody, or no one to avoid the masculine implications of generic he everyone thinks they are right about this issue

Etymology: ME thei < ON thei-r, nom. masc. pl. of the demonstrative pron.; like their & them (ME theim), also < the ON demonstrative forms, thei replaced earlier ME he (hi) because the native pronouns were phonetically confused with the forms of the pers. pron. (ME he, hire, hem, him, etc.): cf. their, them, she