Meanings
- USUsed by officials and celebrities as a condolence after a tragic event.
Another meme shows an empty van. “Excellent news,” it reads. “The first truckload of your thoughts and prayers has just arrived.”
2018 May 19 [2018 February 20], AJ Willimgham, “How ‘thoughts and prayers’ went from common condolence to cynical meme”, in CNN, archived from the original on 23 Mar 20192 more examples
One, “Thoughts and Prayers,” was for the drummer Jo Jones; it included a sermonette for the high-hat cymbal. Mr. Hamilton dedicated another, “Just Play the Melody,” to Mr. Roach.
2007 August 28, Ben Ratliff, “Headliner Can’t Make It? Here’s a First-Class Fill-In”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 10 Jun 2021With the massacre still dominating headlines, most public figures were limiting themselves to vanilla expressions of “thoughts and prayers”. Not so Herrera.
[2026 September 23, Ed Pilkington, “Nazi jokes and ‘cum trophies’: meet the Texas gunfluencer who could soon represent Uvalde”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Origin
Shortened from phrases such as the victims will be in our thoughts and prayers.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
thoughts and prayers. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thoughts%20and%20prayers
“thoughts and prayers.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thoughts%20and%20prayers. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “thoughts and prayers,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thoughts%20and%20prayers.
Source: thoughts and prayers on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.