Word.ws English Dictionary

tongs

UK/tɒŋz//tɔŋz/

tongs noun: an instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers, consisting of two slats or grips hinged at the end or in the middle, and sometimes including a spring to open the grips. Also the plural of tong.

tongs: an instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers,...
Image: Sac86738, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

tongs pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) An instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers, consisting of two slats or grips hinged at the end or in the middle, and sometimes including a spring to open the grips.
    • There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs;[…].1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN
  2. (broadly, plural, plural-only) A large scissors-like two-piece center-hinged forged-iron implement with oval-loop handles and with pointed tips turned inward (in the same plane as and perpendicular to the handles) to facilitate lifting and carrying a block of ice. Often called ice tongs.

Proper noun capitalized: Tongs

Tongs

  1. (plural) plural of Tong

Also used as

tongs is also the plural of tong.

tongs is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of tong.

tongs meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Arabic and Persian

tongs in Hindi

instrument
चिमटा cimṭā

tongs in Tamil

instrument
இடுக்கி iṭukki

tongs in Arabic

instrument
كَلْبَتَان kalbatān

tongs in Persian

instrument
پلاس palâs, کلبتین kalbateyn
More languagesFewer languages
tongs in Thai
คีม kiim, แหนบ nɛ̀ɛp
tongs in Vietnamese
cái gắp đá

Examples of tongs in a sentence

  • When they had an argument they went at it hammer and tongs.
  • “A pact between Poland, Romania, and the Hungarians.” “But what about us?” The tongs snapped closed.
  • Hayek's long thin metal tongs and the way they gleam under the infirmary lights.

All 11 example sentences with tongs

Origin of tongs

From Middle English tonges, equivalent to tong (“tool for manipulating things in a fire”) + -s.

Words formed from tongs

Phrases with tongs

Words that rhyme with tongs

Questions about tongs

What does tongs mean?
Tongs means an instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers, consisting of two slats or grips hinged at the end or in the middle, and sometimes including a spring to open the grips.
What is tongs in Hindi?
Tongs in Hindi is चिमटा (cimṭā). See Tongs meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is tongs?
Tongs can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tongs?
Tongs is pronounced /tɒŋz/ (UK).

Words near tongs in the dictionary

  1. Tongo
  2. Tongod
  3. Tongonan
  4. Tongren
  5. Tongrian
  6. tongs
  7. Tongshan
  8. tongsman
  9. tongsmen
  10. tongster
  11. tongsters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tongs (page history and authors); Tongs (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-tongs.ogg.

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