title: When is a Java thread idle?
body: <p>Just looking thru the Java <a href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/index.html?java/lang/Thread.State.html" rel="nofollow">thread states</a>: </p>
  
  <pre class="lang-java prettyprint-override"><code>NEW
  A thread that has not yet started is in this state.
  RUNNABLE
  A thread executing in the Java virtual machine is in this state.
  BLOCKED
  A thread that is blocked waiting for a monitor lock is in this state.
  WAITING
  A thread that is waiting indefinitely for another thread to perform a particular action is in this state.
  TIMED_WAITING
  A thread that is waiting for another thread to perform an action for up to a specified waiting time is in this state.
  TERMINATED
  A thread that has exited is in this state.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How come there is no idle state? Or what state most closely represents an idle thread?<br>
  Is <code>RUNNING</code> but just not executing on CPU?</p>