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tun.

A large cask; an oblong vessel bulging in the middle, like a pipe or puncheon, and girt with hoops; a wine cask. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.)

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/tʌn/UK/tʊn/UK
  1. A large cask; an oblong vessel bulging in the middle, like a pipe or puncheon, and girt with hoops; a wine cask. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.)

  2. A fermenting vat.

  3. A traditional unit of liquid measure (from the volume of such a cask) equal to 252 wine gallons or 2 pipes.

    historical
  4. Synonym of long ton: a unit of mass equal to 2240 pounds, 20 hundredweights of 112 pounds avoirdupois each.

  5. Synonym of ton: any extremely or excessively large amount.

    figuratively
  6. Synonym of drunkard: a person who drinks excessively.

    archaic · derogatory · humorous
  7. Any shell belonging to Tonna and allied genera.

  8. The cryptobiotic state of a tardigrade, when its metabolism is temporarily suspended.

  9. A small silver cup holding half a pint, sometimes having a whistle in the handle that could not be blown until the cup was empty.

    obsolete
  10. a chimney.

    UK · dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tunne, tonne (“cask, barrel”), from Old English tunne (“tun, cask, barrel”), from Proto-Germanic *tunnǭ, *tunnō (“tun, barrel, cask”), from Latin tunna, probably of Gaulish origin. Cognate with North Frisian tenn (“tun, barrel, cask”), Dutch ton (“tun, barrel, cask”), German Tonne (“tun, barrel, drum”), Danish tønde (“barrel”), Swedish tunna (“barrel, cask, tun”), Icelandic tunna (“barrel”). Compare also Old French tonne, French tonneau (“ton, barrel”), Medieval Latin tunna (“cask”), Middle Irish tunna (“cask”), Welsh tynell (“tun, barrel”). It is uncertain whether the Germanic or the Celtic forms are the original.

verb/tʌn/UK/tʊn/UK
  1. To put into tuns, or casks.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tunne, tonne (“cask, barrel”), from Old English tunne (“tun, cask, barrel”), from Proto-Germanic *tunnǭ, *tunnō (“tun, barrel, cask”), from Latin tunna, probably of Gaulish origin. Cognate with North Frisian tenn (“tun, barrel, cask”), Dutch ton (“tun, barrel, cask”), German Tonne (“tun, barrel, drum”), Danish tønde (“barrel”), Swedish tunna (“barrel, cask, tun”), Icelandic tunna (“barrel”). Compare also Old French tonne, French tonneau (“ton, barrel”), Medieval Latin tunna (“cask”), Middle Irish tunna (“cask”), Welsh tynell (“tun, barrel”). It is uncertain whether the Germanic or the Celtic forms are the original.

noun
  1. A part of the ancient Maya Long Count Calendar system which corresponds to 18 winal cycles or 360 days.

Where this word comes from

From Mayan.

noun
  1. A respectful term of address to royalties and certain award recipients

    Malaysia
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Malay tun.

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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.