"A mechanism that allows one or more paths of execution through the same instance of an application. Each device requires one thread, and each remote site requires two threads. SQL Server uses the native thread services of Windows NT. There are separate threads for each network, a separate thread for database checkpoints, and a pool of threads for all users." (Microsoft Corporation, "SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Training Kit", 1999)
"An operating system component that allows the logic of multiuser applications to be performed as several separate, asynchronous execution paths." (Anthony Sequeira & Brian Alderman, "The SQL Server 2000 Book", 2003)
"a kind of concurrency unit supported by most operating systems, typically 'lighter-weight' than a task." (Bruce P Douglass, "Real-Time Agility: The Harmony/ESW Method for Real-Time and Embedded Systems Development", 2009)
"The operating system object that executes the instructions of a process." (Clay Breshears, "The Art of Concurrency", 2009)
"A sequence of executing instructions within a process that may execute in parallel with other threads." (Rod Stephens, "Start Here!™ Fundamentals of Microsoft® .NET Programming", 2011)
"Software, operating system entity that contains an execution context (instruction pointer and a stack)." (Max Domeika, "Software Development for Embedded Multi-core Systems", 2011)
"A single unit of control in a program that shares memory with other threads." (Mark C Lewis, "Introduction to the Art of Programming Using Scala", 2012)
"A type of object within a process that runs program instructions. Using multiple threads allows concurrent operations within a process and enables one process to run different parts of its program on different processors simultaneously. A thread has its own set of registers, its own kernel stack, a thread environment block, and a user stack in the address space of its process." (Microsoft, "SQL Server 2012 Glossary", 2012)
"In general, a software thread is any software unit of parallel work with an independent flow of control, and a hardware thread is any hardware unit capable of executing a single flow of control (in particular, a hardware unit that maintains a single program counter). Threads are a mechanism for implementing tasks." (Michael McCool et al, "Structured Parallel Programming", 2012)
"Like a forked process, but without fork’s inherent memory protection. A thread is lighter weight than a full process, in that a process could have multiple threads running around in it, all fighting over the same process’s memory space unless steps are taken to protect threads from one another." (Jon Orwant et al, "Programming Perl, 4th Ed.", 2012)
"A stream of computer instructions that is in control of a process. In some operating systems, a thread is the smallest unit of operation in a process. Several threads can run concurrently, performing different jobs." (IBM, "Informix Servers 12.1", 2014)
"Instruction set generated by a process when it has a specific activity that needs to be carried out by an operating system. When the activity is finished, the thread is destroyed." (Adam Gordon, "Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK" 4th Ed., 2015)
"A path of execution through Open Server application and library code and the path’s associated stack space, state information, and event handlers." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)
"The DB2 structure that describes the connection of an application, traces its progress, processes resource functions, and delimits its accessibility to DB2 resources and services. Most DB2 functions execute under a thread structure." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)
"An independent stream of execution within a program. Because Java is a multithreaded programming language, more than one thread may be running within the Java interpreter at a time. Threads in Java are represented and controlled through the Thread object." (Daniel Leuck et al, "Learning Java, 5th Ed.", 2020)
"In computing, a thread is a subsequence of instructions in a program that may be executed in parallel." (Alex Thomas, "Natural Language Processing with Spark NLP", 2020)
