tunnel
/ˈtʌn(ə)l/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.24 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An underground or underwater passage.
noun
A hole in the ground made by an animal, a burrow.
noun
A wrapper for a protocol that cannot otherwise be used because it is unsupported, blocked, or insecure.
noun
A vessel with a broad mouth at one end, a pipe or tube at the other, for conveying liquor, fluids, etc., into casks, bottles, or other vessels; a funnel.
Example Sentences
- "In 1865 an outfit called the East London Railway Company bought the Brunel tunnel for £800,000, and in 1869 they opened a railway through it."
- "But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in."
- "Tunnels often feature in fictional journeys, so I will end with quotations from a fairly recent novel, Howard Spring's "Fame is the Spur", published in 1940, in which there is a journey from Manchester to Bradford via the Calder Valley route: "Ay, we're going through Todmorden. We'll soon be in t' tunnel, and when we get to t' other end we'll be in Yorkshire," and "Ah think this is t' filthiest tunnel in t' world.""
- "There are more than 1,500 railway tunnels in Britain and the majority are still in use, carrying working tracks beneath Britain's most inconvenient geographic features."
- "And one great chimney, whose long tonnell thence, / The smoke forth threw"
- "Especially in the Eden Valley, trees create what is almost a green tunnel (particularly in summer)."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *temh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *tend- Proto-Indo-European *tondeh₂ Proto-Celtic *tondā Gaulishbor.? Medieval Latin tunna Old French tone Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin -ellus Old French -el Old French tonelbor. Middle English tonnel English tunnel From Middle English tonnel, from Old French tonel(e), diminutive of tone (“cask”), a word of uncertain origin and affiliation. Related to Old English tunne (“tun; cask; barrel”). More at tun.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: tonnel, tonel