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rung.

A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɹʌŋ//ˈɹɜŋ//ˈɹɐ̞ŋ/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈɹäŋ/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.

  2. A crosspiece between legs of a chair.

  3. A position in a hierarchy.

    figuratively
    the lowest rung of the society
  4. A floor timber in a ship.

    dated
  5. One of the stakes of a cart; a spar; a heavy staff.

    dated
  6. One of the radial handles projecting from the rim of a steering wheel.

    dated
  7. One of the pins or trundles of a lantern wheel.

    dated
Where this word comes from

From Middle English rung, from Old English hrung, from Proto-West Germanic *hrungu, from Proto-Germanic *hrungō. Cognate with Dutch rong (“pole, stanchion”), German Runge (“stake, pole, stanchion”), Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐌿𐌲𐌲𐌰 (hrugga, “a staff”).

adj/ˈɹʌŋ//ˈɹɜŋ//ˈɹɐ̞ŋ/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈɹäŋ/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. Of a pig: having a ring through the nose.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

verb/ˈɹʌŋ//ˈɹɜŋ//ˈɹɐ̞ŋ/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈɹäŋ/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. past participle of ring (only in senses related to a bell)

    form-of · participle · past
  2. simple past of ring

    dialectal · form-of · past
Where this word comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

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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.