tanker
/ˈtæŋkə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.44 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A motor truck (lorry) with a tank to hold bulk liquid (with or without internal baffles): a fuel tanker (lorry), petrol tanker, road tanker.
British usage; American usage
noun
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.
noun
A tank car (tank wagon).
Example Sentences
- "The channel at Chan-chiang is being dredged to a depth of 50 feet enabling tankers of 70,000 tons to call."
- "Nor is the government facing a strike by tanker drivers, as was the case in early 1979 during the winter of discontent."
- "Without the KC-46 tankers orbiting in friendly airspace, our fighters would've run out of fuel long before reaching the combat zone."
- "On Friday night, eight US Air Force KC-135 Stratotankers took off from Altus, Oklahoma, according to data from FlightRadar24. Over Kansas the tankers refueled two groups of planes, identified on air traffic control audio by their callsigns MYTEE11 FLT and MYTEE21 FLT. The callsign MYTEE has previously been associated with special activity flights by B-2 bombers, and multiple flight trackers on social media said the planes being refueled were B-2 bombers out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri."
- "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."
- "On February 19, 1943, American tankers felt the full wrath of the German Army in North Africa when its tank-led spearhead punched a 2-mile-wide hole through American lines at Faid Pass in Tunisia, […]"
Etymology
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.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtæŋkə/
- British English: /ˈtæŋkə/
Usage
- British usage
- American usage
- Slang
- Transitive verb