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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

spelunk.

A cave, cavern or grotto.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/spəˈlʌŋk//spiːˈlʌŋk/
  1. A cave, cavern or grotto.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English spelunke, from Old French spelonque and/or Latin spelunca, from Ancient Greek σπῆλυγξ (spêlunx, “cave”), related to σπέος (spéos). Cognates include Middle Dutch spelunke, spelonke, German Spelunke.

verb/spəˈlʌŋk//spiːˈlʌŋk/
  1. To explore caves.

  2. To explore a system in depth.

Where this word comes from

U.S., 1940s. Back-formation from spelunker.

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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.