chunk
/t͡ʃʌŋk/
chunk noun: a part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone. Also the archaic form of chank.
Noun
chunk (plural chunks)
- A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone.
- The statue broke into chunks.
- a chunk of granite
- A large or substantial portion of something.
- I'd be willing to bet a chunk of my retirement that the number hasn't decreased.2013 February 26, Maryellen Weimer, Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 91
- […] she'd be willing to bet a chunk of change this would be one of the nicest rooms Kate-Lynn Bowers had ever slept in: it was the sort of place you'd think twice about running away from.2015 December 6, Eva Hudson, Shoot First, Two Pies Press
- A sequence of two or more words that occur in language with high frequency but are not idiomatic.
- In fact, some linguists suggest that 45 percent to 60 percent of what you produce in your L1 is functional chunks of language. These chunks of language also give you some sense of fluency.2025, María J. Cabrera-Puche, Learning A New Language For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 219
- A discrete segment of a file, stream, etc. (especially one that represents audiovisual media); a block.
- The first DWORD of a chunk data in the RIFF chunk is a four character code value identifying the form type of the file.1994, Paul J Perry, Multimedia developer's guide
- Each peer downloads the desired file, in chunks, from a multitude of other peers. While downloading missing chunks, peers upload to other peers in the same torrent the chunks they have already obtained.2015, Jean-Marc Pierson, Large-scale Distributed Systems and Energy Efficiency: A Holistic View, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 271
- A segment of a comedian's performance.
- You begin gathering two hours of dependable comedy by developing that first three-minute chunk. When you're satisfied with it, you create another three minutes of laughs, then another three minutes.1994, Gene Perret, Successful Stand-up Comedy: Advice from a Comedy Writer, page 80
- If you're gigging outdoors for the Society of Catholic Gardeners, don't close your set with your "Papa Beelzebub" chunk (no matter how life affirming you think it is!).2012, Jay Sankey, Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy, page 168
Verb
chunk (third-person singular simple present chunks, present participle chunking, simple past and past participle chunked)
- To break into large pieces or chunks.
- To break down (language, etc.) into conceptual pieces of manageable size.
- These results offer tentative evidence that suggests that certain components of computer-mediated instruction (in this case, access to and control over syntactically chunked, captioned video) are not necessarily beneficial for certain learners […]2005, Yong Zhao, Research in Technology and Second Language Education
- To throw.
- Calpurnia said it was hard on Helen, because she had to walk nearly a mile out of her way to availed the Ewells, who, according to Helen, “chunked at her” the first time she tried to use the public road.1960, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
- To add wood to a fire or to stoke it.
- To deal a substantial amount of damage to an opponent.
- He's chunked right before the next battle so he has to regen HP.
- To remove a chunk from.
- "Mind you keep very still," he said, "or I might chunk a bit out of you with the spade."1899, E. Nesbit, The Story of the Treasure Seekers
Also used as
chunk is also the archaic form of chank.
chunk meaning in Gujarati, Odia, Nepali and Tagalog
chunk in Odia
- ଚଙ୍କ୍
chunk in Nepali
- चंक, चन्क
chunk in Tagalog
- a representative of substance
- tigkal
More languagesFewer languages
- chunk in Vietnamese
- mảnh, mẩu, cục
Examples of chunk in a sentence
- A monolithic chunk of titanium with facets for cutting, wrenching, and prying.
- The old version was okay, but the new version blows chunks.
- Gas and electric bills take a good-sized chunk of my salary.
Synonyms of chunk
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of chunk
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | chunks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | chunks |
| present participle | chunking |
| past participle | chunked |
| past | chunked |
Origin of chunk
Variant of chuck; or alternatively a diminutive of chump (“chunk; block”) + *-k (diminutive suffix) (compare hunk from hump, etc.). Also compare Dutch schonk.
Words formed from chunk
Phrases with chunk
Words that rhyme with chunk
Questions about chunk
- What does chunk mean?
- Chunk means a part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone.
- What is chunk in Gujarati?
- Chunk in Gujarati is ચંક. See Chunk meaning in Gujarati.
- What part of speech is chunk?
- Chunk can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce chunk?
- Chunk is pronounced /t͡ʃʌŋk/.
- What is the plural of chunk?
- The plural of chunk is chunks.
Words near chunk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chunk (page history and authors); chunk (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chunk (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chunk (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-chunk.ogg.
Cite this entry: “chunk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chunk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.