Throes - throws

These homophones have been confused. Good academic writers do not mix them up.

Throws is the plural of the noun ‘a throw’, as in “each player has two throws of the dice” (or the 3rd person singular of the verb ‘to throw’, as in “He throws the ball”).

Throes are literally muscular spasms or contractions. We can say that a woman is ‘in the throes of childbirth’. We talk of the ‘death throes’ of a hunted animal – the last few desperate movements of the muscles of the dying organism. We can also use the word figuratively. A writer beating their brows for inspiration might be said to be ‘in the throes of composition’. A man groaning and twitching might be ‘in the throes of’ despair – or love!