Word.ws English Dictionary

rung

/ˈɹʌŋ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈɹɐ̞ŋ/

rung noun: a crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round. Also the past participle of ring.

rung: a crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round
Image: Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

rung (plural rungs)

  1. A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.
    Synonyms:
    spoke
  2. A crosspiece between legs of a chair.
    • One of its arms was a disabled flail which used to be wielded by Goodman Rigby, before his spouse worried him out of this troublesome world; the other, if I mistake not, was composed of the pudding stick and a broken rung of a chair, tied loosely together at the elbow.1854, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Feathertop: a Moralized Legend”, in Mosses from an Old Manse
  3. (figuratively) A position in a hierarchy.
    • the lowest rung of the society
    • “I’m very proud that I’ve worked on every rung of the ladder,” Ashley says. “When you go to college, you don’t want to be a senior right away—you want to be a freshman.”2023 June 15, Kat Moon, “Ashley Park’s Main Character Energy From ‘Joy Ride’ Is Here To Stay: ‘I’m Treating Myself Like A Lead Now’”, in Women's Health
    Synonyms:
    echelon
  4. (dated) A floor timber in a ship.
  5. (dated) One of the stakes of a cart; a spar; a heavy staff.
  6. (dated) One of the radial handles projecting from the rim of a steering wheel.
  7. (dated) One of the pins or trundles of a lantern wheel.

Adjective

rung (not comparable)

  1. Of a pig: having a ring through the nose.
    • […] he passed by his gate with a decided scowl on his furrowed brow, and grunting and growling like a newly rung pig.1842, American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, volume 13, page 335
    • A "rung" pig is comfortable as long as he confines his food hunt to the surface of the ground. Ringing a pig of ordinary size is easy, but special arrangements must be made for handling the big ones.1919, Popular Science, volume 95, number 4, page 31

Proper noun capitalized: Rung

Rung (plural Rungs)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

rung is also the past participle of ring.

rung is also the simple past of ring.

rung meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Punjabi

rung in Hindi

रुंग

rung in Tamil

ரங்க்

rung in Marathi

रुंग

rung in Punjabi

ladder step
ਪੌੜੀ pauṛī, ਡੰਡਾ ḍaṇḍā
More languagesFewer languages
rung in Gujarati
રુંગ, રન્ગ
rung in Arabic
دَرَجَة daraja
rung in Indonesian
anak tangga
rung in Vietnamese
bậc

Examples of rung in a sentence

  • John has just rung in sick. He won't be back till Monday, he says.
  • In Japanese society, Koreans are viewed as being of a lower rung on the social ladder compared to Yamato people.
  • A quarter peal of plain bob doubles was rung.

All 32 example sentences with rung

Synonyms of rung

Forms of rung

Noun
pluralrungs
Proper noun
pluralRungs

Plural of rung: rungs

Origin of rung

From Middle English rung, from Old English hrung, from Proto-West Germanic *hrungu, from Proto-Germanic *hrungō. Cognate with Dutch rong (“pole, stanchion”), German Runge (“stake, pole, stanchion”), Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐌿𐌲𐌲𐌰 (hrugga, “a staff”).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from rung

Phrases with rung

8 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with rung

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rung

What does rung mean?
Rung means a crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.
What is rung in Hindi?
Rung in Hindi is रुंग. See Rung meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is rung?
Rung can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rung?
Rung is pronounced /ˈɹʌŋ/.
What is the plural of rung?
The plural of rung is rungs.

Words near rung in the dictionary

  1. runework
  2. runflat
  3. runflats
  4. runfluencer
  5. runfluencers
  6. rung
  7. rung a bell
  8. rung around
  9. rung back
  10. rung down the curtain
  11. rung false

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rung (page history and authors); Rung (page history and authors); rung (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rung (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rung (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rung (Gujarati, 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-rung.wav, en-us-rung.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rung.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rung. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.