Word.ws English Dictionary

tonquin

tonquin is the alternative form of tonka.

Meaning of tonka

Noun

tonka (uncountable)

  1. A flavoring or fragrance used in foodstuffs and perfumes, derived from the tonka bean which contains coumarin.
    • When grated into desserts or infused into syrups, they impart a flavour so transcendent, tonka has been dubbed the most delicious ingredient you’ve never heard of.2017, Zaria Gorvett, The delicious flavour with a toxic secret, BBC

Proper noun capitalized: Tonquin

Tonquin

  1. (obsolete) Obsolete form of Tonkin.
    • Therefore in hopes to defray ſome of the Charges he muſt be at, he bought a Sloop, loaded it with ſeveral ſorts of Goods, wherewith the Tinquineſe uſually trade to the neighbouring Iſlands, and putting fourteen Men on board, whereof three were of the Country, he appointed me Maſter of the Sloop...1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Sets out on His Third Voyage; is taken by Pyrates. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II...

Forms of tonquin

pluraltonquins

Words formed from tonquin

Phrases with tonquin

Questions about tonquin

What is tonquin the alternative form of?
Tonquin is the alternative form of tonka.
What part of speech is tonquin?
Tonquin is a proper noun.

Words near tonquin in the dictionary

  1. tonotopy
  2. tonous
  3. tonqua
  4. tonqua bean
  5. tonqua beans
  6. tonquin
  7. tonquin bean
  8. tonquin beans
  9. Tonquinese
  10. Tonra
  11. tons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tonquin (page history and authors); Tonquin (page history and authors); tonka (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.

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