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tunnel

Syllabification: (tun·nel)
Pronunciation: /ˈtənl/
Translate tunnel | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of tunnel

noun

  • an artificial underground passage, especially one built through a hill or under a building, road, or river.
  • an underground passage dug by a burrowing animal.
  • [in singular] a passage in a sports stadium by which players enter or leave the field.

verb (tunnels, tunneling, tunneled ; Britishtunnels, tunnelling, tunnelled)

  • 1 [no object] dig or force a passage underground or through something:he tunneled under the fence (tunnel one's way)the insect tunnels its way out of the plant
  • 2 [no object] Physics (of a particle) pass through a potential barrier.

Phrases

light at the end of the tunnel

see light1.

Derivatives

tunneler

noun

Origin:

late Middle English (in the senses 'tunnel net' and 'flue of a chimney'): from Old French tonel, diminutive of tonne 'cask'. sense 1 of the verb of the noun dates from the mid 18th century

Spelling help

Spell tunnel with a double n and a single l.

Spelling rule

Do not double the final consonant when adding endings that begin with a vowel to a word that ends in a vowel plus a consonant, if the stress is not at the end of the word (as in target): (tunnels, tunneling, tunneled).

tunnel in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of tunnel in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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