Objective To analyze the research hotspots and trends in traditional Chinese medicine for thyroid cancer over the past decade based on bibliometrics. Methods Relevant studies were retrieved from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Web of Science databases between January 2014 and December 2024, and CiteSpace 6.1.R6 software was employed to perform co-occurrence, cluster, and burst analyses of authors, institutions, and keywords in the included literature. Results A total of 264 relevant studies on traditional Chinese medicine for thyroid carcinoma were retrieved from the two databases between 2014 and 2024. The annual number of published studies showed an overall fluctuating upward trend, with research efforts concentrated in traditional Chinese medicine colleges and universities. However, multi-team collaboration remained relatively weak. A total of 23 keywords with a frequency of ≥5 were identified in the Chinese-language literature, with the top three most frequently occurring keywords being "thyroid cancer", "postoperative thyroid cancer", and "levothyroxine sodium tablets". In the English-language literature, 12 keywords had a frequency of ≥5, and the most prevalent ones were carcinoma, apoptosis, and expression. In the Chinese-language literature, the keywords formed 10 clusters, namely "postoperative thyroid cancer", "levothyroxine sodium tablets", "traditional Chinese medicine syndrome score", "depression", "medication rules", "immune function", "cell proliferation", "long-term efficacy", "tumor markers", and "hyperlipidemia". In the English-language literature, 6 clusters were identified from the keywords, namely antioxidant, growth, post-operative pain, papillary thyroid cancer, multicolor emitting carbon dots, and astaxanthin. Burst keyword analysis revealed that "thyroid function", "network pharmacology", "famous physicians' experience", "thyroglobulin", "131I therapy", proliferation, growth, and phosphoinositide 3-kinase-Akt kinase (PI3K/Akt) are the key research hotspots in the field of traditional Chinese medicine for thyroid cancinoma. Conclusion Research hotspots exhibited significant divergence between Chinese- and English-language literatures: the Chinese-language studies focused on postoperative rehabilitation, syndrome patterns, and famous physicians' experience, while the English-language studies centered on apoptosis, proliferation, and molecular mechanisms such as the PI3K-Akt. Future efforts should prioritize strengthening multidisciplinary intersection and collaboration to promote the translational application of traditional Chinese medicine in the precise treatment of thyroid cancer.

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