spelunk
/spəˈlʌŋk/
spelunk noun: a cave, cavern or grotto.
Noun
spelunk (plural spelunks)
Verb
spelunk (third-person singular simple present spelunks, present participle spelunking, simple past and past participle spelunked)
- To explore caves.
- To explore a system in depth.
Synonyms of spelunk
Forms of spelunk
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | spelunks |
| alternative form | spelunc |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | spelunks |
| present participle | spelunking |
| past participle | spelunked |
| past | spelunked |
Origin of spelunk
From Middle English spelunke, from Old French spelonque and/or Latin spelunca, from Ancient Greek σπῆλυγξ (spêlunx, “cave”), related to σπέος (spéos). Cognates include Middle Dutch spelunke, spelonke, German Spelunke.
U.S., 1940s. Back-formation from spelunker.
Words formed from spelunk
Words that rhyme with spelunk
Questions about spelunk
- What does spelunk mean?
- Spelunk means a cave, cavern or grotto.
- What part of speech is spelunk?
- Spelunk can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce spelunk?
- Spelunk is pronounced /spəˈlʌŋk/.
- What is the plural of spelunk?
- The plural of spelunk is spelunks.
Words near spelunk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spelunk (page history and authors). 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-spelunk.ogg.
Cite this entry: “spelunk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spelunk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.