think tank

noun

: an institute, corporation, or group organized to study a particular subject (such as a policy issue or a scientific problem) and provide information, ideas, and advice
an information technology think tank
… was responsible for the armies of new political-action committees, lobbyists and rightward think tanks that poured into Washington to counter the consumer and environmental movements he helped to inspire.Jonathan Rowe

Examples of think tank in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Carter is also involved with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Erin Glynn, The Enquirer, 7 Mar. 2024 Child poverty roughly doubled following the expiration of a tax credit expansion approved by Biden in 2021, and roughly half of Americans will struggle to pay typical expenses in old age, said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. Jeff Stein, Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2024 While several of its top beneficiaries are think tanks that have focused on economic policy and loosening government regulations, others have worked to weaken child labor laws, advocate for stricter voting rules, gut affirmative action policies, and push climate change denial. Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2024 The murder rate in red states in 2022 was 33% higher than in blue states for that year, according to a report by the nonpartisan think tank Third Way that analyzed 2021 and 2022 homicide data from Center of Disease Control’s mortality statistics. TIME, 28 Feb. 2024 That's according to a new report released Tuesday by the think tank Detroit Future City. Nushrat Rahman, Detroit Free Press, 27 Feb. 2024 Crane has long corrected those who referred to Cato as a conservative or Republican think tank. John Tamny, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024 Over the course of 2023, Russia – a country with three times as many people as Ukraine – increased its troop numbers in the occupied territories by almost a third, according to a London think tank. CNN, 21 Feb. 2024 In Britain, a 2022 survey of 8,000 adults by the center-right think tank Onward found 61% of this age group said such a strongman was a good way to run a country — up from 25% in 1999. Alexander Smith, NBC News, 20 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'think tank.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1958, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of think tank was in 1958

Dictionary Entries Near think tank

Cite this Entry

“Think tank.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/think%20tank. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

think tank

noun
: an organization formed to think up new solutions especially for social and scientific problems
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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