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tanker.

A tankship, a vessel used to transport large quantities of fluid.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtæŋkə/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈtæŋkɚ/General-American/ˈteɪ̯ŋkɚ//ˈtɛ̃ŋkɚ/
  1. A tankship, a vessel used to transport large quantities of fluid.

  2. A motor truck (lorry) with a tank to hold bulk liquid (with or without internal baffles): a fuel tanker (lorry), petrol tanker, road tanker.

    UK · US
  3. An aircraft carrying a large supply of jet fuel or avgas for aerial refueling of other aircraft, plus equipment allowing the in-air transfer of fuel.

    usually
    Without the KC-46 tankers orbiting in friendly airspace, our fighters would've run out of fuel long before reaching the combat zone.
  4. An aircraft built or modified to carry water and/or fire retardant for dropping on wildfires.

    While our ground teams cut firebreaks in the brush, the tankers kept the fire in the mountains at bay with frequent drops of water and retardant.
  5. A tank car (tank wagon).

  6. Member of a tank crew, or of an armoured unit.

  7. An airman who serves on the crew of an aerial refueling tanker aircraft.

  8. A longboard.

    slang
    I swung the tanker around just in time to take off with the lip.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Prakrit 𑀝𑀁𑀓 (ṭaṃka) Gujarati ટાંકી (ṭā̃kī)bor. Portuguese tanquebor. English tank Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English tanker From tank + -er.

verb/ˈtæŋkə/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈtæŋkɚ/General-American/ˈteɪ̯ŋkɚ//ˈtɛ̃ŋkɚ/
  1. To transport (oil, etc.) in a tanker.

    transitive
  2. To carry more fuel than necessary for a flight, in order to avoid having to refuel at a destination where fuel is more expensive or in short supply.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Prakrit 𑀝𑀁𑀓 (ṭaṃka) Gujarati ટાંકી (ṭā̃kī)bor. Portuguese tanquebor. English tank Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English tanker From tank + -er.

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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.