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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

tunnel

/ˈtʌnəl/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:03
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What does tunnel mean?

noun

  1. An underground or underwater passage.
  2. A passage through or under some obstacle.
  3. A hole in the ground made by an animal, a burrow.
More meanings (11)

noun

  1. A wrapper for a protocol that cannot otherwise be used because it is unsupported, blocked, or insecure.
  2. 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.
  3. The opening of a chimney for the passage of smoke; a flue.
  4. A level passage driven across the measures, or at right angles to veins which it is desired to reach; distinguished from the drift, or gangway, which is led along the vein when reached by the tunnel.
  5. (figuratively) Anything that resembles a tunnel.

verb

  1. To make a tunnel through or under something; to burrow.
  2. To dig a tunnel.
  3. To transmit something through a tunnel (wrapper for an insecure or unsupported protocol).
  4. To insert a catheter into a vein to allow long-term use.
  5. To undergo the quantum-mechanical phenomenon where a particle penetrates through a barrier that it classically cannot surmount.

proper noun

  1. A locality in the City of Launceston, northern Tasmania, Australia.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈtʌnəl/

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

Either he had not placed himself in the centre of the tunnel, or else the blinded banth had erred in its calculations.
Edgar Rice BurroughsThuvia, maid of MarsProject Gutenberg ebook #72
I thought that Captain Nemo, by changing his course, would either turn these obstacles or else follow the windings of the tunnel.
Jules VerneTwenty Thousand Leagues under the SeaProject Gutenberg ebook #164
More book examples (3)
Going out through the tunnel, I gave the hens their corn, emptied the ice from their drinking-pan, and filled it with water.
Willa CatherMy ÁntoniaProject Gutenberg ebook #242
His nest is under the rough grasses and the mosses of the mound, a mere tunnel beneath the fibres and matted surface.
Richard JefferiesThe Pageant of SummerProject Gutenberg ebook #414
DELAYED by a train of accidents, a big contractor faced forfeiture of his bond on a city tunnel costing millions of dollars.
Walter Dill ScottIncreasing Human Efficiency in Business A Contribution to the Psychology of BusinessProject Gutenberg ebook #1319