Word.ws English Dictionary

Tonkin

Tonkin proper noun: a surname transferred from the given name. Also the ellipsis of the Gulf of Tonkin.

Proper noun (1)

Tonkin (plural Tonkins)

  1. A surname transferred from the given name.

Proper noun (2)

Tonkin

  1. (archaic) Synonym of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
    Synonyms:
    Hanoi
  2. (historical) A former domain in northern Vietnam.
    Synonyms:
    Đàng Ngoài
  3. (historical) A former protectorate in northern Vietnam, a colony of France.
    Synonyms:
    Bắc Kỳ

Also used as

Tonkin is also the ellipsis of the Gulf of Tonkin.

Tonkin is also the ellipsis of Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Synonyms of Tonkin

  • Hanoi
  • Đàng Ngoài
  • Bắc Kỳ

Forms of Tonkin

pluralTonkins
alternative formTonquin
alternative formTong-King

Origin of Tonkin

From a medieval diminutive form of the given name Thomas.

From French Tonkin, from Vietnamese Đông Kinh (“Hanoi; its former kingdom”), from đông (“east, eastern”) + kinh (“capital”), from Middle Chinese 東京 (tuwng kjaeng), q.v. Cognate, through Middle Chinese, of Tokyo.

Words formed from Tonkin

Phrases with Tonkin

Questions about Tonkin

What does Tonkin mean?
Tonkin means a surname transferred from the given name.
What part of speech is Tonkin?
Tonkin is a proper noun.

Words near Tonkin in the dictionary

  1. Tonkawan
  2. Tonkawans
  3. Tonkawas
  4. tonked
  5. tonker
  6. Tonkin
  7. Tonkin pit viper
  8. Tonkin pit vipers
  9. Tonkin toad
  10. Tonkin toads
  11. Tonkinese

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Tonkin (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:

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