bunker.
A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
Meaning & usage
A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
The military built a bunker to help evacuate the citizens safely from the bombings.
A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.
The coal compartment on a tank engine; it can also refer to that on a tender engine.
Ellipsis of bunker oil (usually plural).
The vessel is taking on bunkers.
A hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.
An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.
A large bin or container for storing coal, often built outdoors in the yard of a house.
There used to be a coal bunker at the back of the house - it was demolished years ago.
A sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat.
A kitchen worktop.
A refrigerator or freezer, usually with an open top, used to display chilled or frozen merchandise for convenience in grocery stores.
Where this word comes from
The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 7.1 (“box or chest, the lid of which serves as a seat”), from Scots bunker (“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”), from Early Scots bunker, bunkur, bonker (“a chest or box, often serving as a seat”), probably from Old Norse bunki (“a heap”) (probably whence bunk (“sleeping berth in a ship, train, etc.”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkô (“a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ- (“thick”) or *bʰeg- (“to billow, swell; to arch, bend, curve (?)”). Compare Middle Low German bunge (“drum, container”), Middle High German bunge (“drum”). Sense 1 (“hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks”) was derived from German Bunker during World War II, which was itself from bunker (“large bin or container for storing coal”) (sense 5). The verb is derived from the noun.
To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.
To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.
To steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off.
To hit (a golf ball) into a bunker; (chiefly passive voice) to place (a golfer) in the position of having a golf ball in a bunker.
To hit (a golf ball) into a bunker; (chiefly passive voice) to place (a golfer) in the position of having a golf ball in a bunker. To place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of; to hinder.
To fire constantly at (an opponent hiding behind an obstacle), trapping them and preventing them from firing at other players; also, to eliminate (an opponent behind an obstacle) by rushing to the position and firing at extremely close range as the player becomes exposed.
Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.
Where this word comes from
The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 7.1 (“box or chest, the lid of which serves as a seat”), from Scots bunker (“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”), from Early Scots bunker, bunkur, bonker (“a chest or box, often serving as a seat”), probably from Old Norse bunki (“a heap”) (probably whence bunk (“sleeping berth in a ship, train, etc.”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkô (“a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ- (“thick”) or *bʰeg- (“to billow, swell; to arch, bend, curve (?)”). Compare Middle Low German bunge (“drum, container”), Middle High German bunge (“drum”). Sense 1 (“hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks”) was derived from German Bunker during World War II, which was itself from bunker (“large bin or container for storing coal”) (sense 5). The verb is derived from the noun.
One who bunks off; a truant from school.
Where this word comes from
From bunk (“to fail to attend school or work without permission, to play truant”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns indicating a person or thing that does an action).
The menhaden, any of several species of fish in the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium.
Where this word comes from
Clipping of mossbunker, a variant of mossbanker, from Dutch marsbanker (“common scad or Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus)”), from Marsdiep (“deep tide-race between Den Helder and Texel in the Netherlands”) + bank (“shallow part of the sea near a coast”) + -er (suffix forming nouns denoting male inhabitants of a place).
Try it on your idea.
bunker has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.