tong
/tɒŋ/US/tɔŋ/
tong noun: an instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands. Also the obsolete spelling of tongue.
Noun (1)
tong (plural tongs)
- An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands.
- […] these attributes are concrete expressions of God's care and providence and therefore not man-made. This explains the quite bizarre presence of a ‘pair’ of tongs in some lists: in order to make a tong one needs a tong, and how could the first tong be made without a tong?1998, Alberdina Houtman, Marcel Poorthuis, Joshua Schwartz, editors, Sanctity of time and space in tradition and modernity, page 232
Verb
tong (third-person singular simple present tongs, present participle tonging, simple past and past participle tonged)
- To use tongs.
- To grab, manipulate or transport something using tongs.
Noun (2)
tong (plural tongs)
- A Chinese lineage organization responsible for managing ancestral land.
- An Ordinance to provide for the termination of the Block Crown Lease of Cheung Chau granted to Wong Wai Tsak Tong and for sub-lessees under the Block Crown Lease to hold directly from the Crown.1995, Legislative Council of Hong Kong, “Block Crown Lease (Cheung Chau) Ordinance”, in Hong Kong Government Gazette, page A2772
- A Chinese secret society or gang.
Proper noun capitalized: Tong
Tong (countable and uncountable, plural Tongs)
- A surname.
- A hamlet in Headcorn parish, Maidstone district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TQ8346).
- A village and civil parish in eastern Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SJ7907).
- A small village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE2230).
- A village north of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Western Isles council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NB4436).
Also used as
tong is also the obsolete spelling of tongue.
tong meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
tong in Hindi
- tool
- चिमटा cimṭā
tong in Marathi
- टोंग
tong in Urdu
- ٹونگ
tong in Bengali
- টঙ্গ, টু টঙ্গ
More languagesFewer languages
- tong in Malayalam
- ടോങ്
- tong in Kannada
- ಟಾಂಗ್
- tong in Punjabi
- ਟੰਗ, ਟੋਂਗ
- tong in Gujarati
- ટોંગ, ટોન્ગ, ટુ ટોંગ
- tong in Odia
- ଟଙ୍ଗ, ଟୁ ଟଙ୍ଗ
- tong in Nepali
- टङ्ग, टोंग, टु टोंग
- tong in Thai
- คีม kiim
- tong in Vietnamese
- kìm, kẹp, dùng kìm, dùng kẹp
Forms of tong
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tongs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tongs |
| present participle | tonging |
| past participle | tonged |
| past | tonged |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Tongs |
Origin of tong
From Middle English tonge (“tongs, fang”), tange, from Old English tange, from Proto-West Germanic *tangu, from Proto-Germanic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”). Cognate with Old Norse tǫng (modern Icelandic töng), Old High German zanga (modern German Zange). Other cognates include Sanskrit दशति (dáśati, “to bite”) and Albanian dang (“bite, nip”).
From Cantonese 堂 (tong⁴).
For the surname: Borrowed from Cantonese 湯／汤 (tong1), Cantonese 唐 (tong4), Mandarin 佟 (Tóng), Mandarin 童 (Tóng), etc.
Words formed from tong
Phrases with tong
- tong sui
- Yau Tong
- Kwun Tong
- tong laus
- tong wars
- bak tong gou
- go Pete Tong
- Kowloon Tong
- pak tong gou
- goes Pete Tong
- gone Pete Tong
- Phi Tong Luang
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with tong
Questions about tong
- What does tong mean?
- Tong means an instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands.
- What is tong in Hindi?
- Tong in Hindi is चिमटा (cimṭā). See Tong meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tong?
- Tong can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce tong?
- Tong is pronounced /tɒŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tong?
- The plural of tong is tongs.
Words near tong in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tong (page history and authors); Tong (page history and authors); tong (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tong (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tong (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tong (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tong (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tong (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tong (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tong (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tong (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tong.wav.
Cite this entry: “tong.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tong. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.