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trepan.

A tool used to bore through rock when sinking shafts.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/tɹɪˈpæn/Received-Pronunciation/tɹəˈpæn/General-American/tɹi-/General-American
  1. A tool used to bore through rock when sinking shafts.

  2. A surgical instrument used to remove a circular section of bone from the skull; a trephine.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trepan, from Latin trepanum, from Ancient Greek τρύπανον (trúpanon, “auger, borer”). Doublet of trephine.

verb/tɹɪˈpæn/Received-Pronunciation/tɹəˈpæn/General-American/tɹi-/General-American
  1. To create a large hole by making a narrow groove outlining the shape of the hole and then removing the plug of material remaining by less expensive means.

    transitive
  2. To use a trepan; to trephine.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trepan, from Latin trepanum, from Ancient Greek τρύπανον (trúpanon, “auger, borer”). Doublet of trephine.

noun/tɹɪˈpæn/Received-Pronunciation/tɹəˈpæn/General-American/tɹi-/General-American
  1. Alternative spelling of trapan (“act of entrapping or tricking; thing which entraps or tricks; (archaic or obsolete) person (or occasionally an animal) that traps or tricks another into doing something that benefits them but harms the victim”)

    alt-of · alternative
Where this word comes from

See trapan.

verb/tɹɪˈpæn/Received-Pronunciation/tɹəˈpæn/General-American/tɹi-/General-American
  1. Alternative spelling of trapan (“to catch or entrap (a person or animal) in a snare or trap; (figurative) to trap or trick (someone), especially by using some stratagem, into doing something that benefits the perpetrator but harms the victim”)

    alt-of · alternative
Where this word comes from

See trapan.

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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.