Word.ws English Dictionary

tung

tung is the obsolete spelling of tongue.

Meaning of tongue

Noun

tongue (countable and uncountable, plural tongues)

  1. The flexible muscular organ in the mouth that is used to move food around, for tasting and that is moved into various positions to modify the flow of air from the lungs in order to produce different sounds in speech.
    • But lering and lurking here and there like ſpies,c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.
    Synonyms:
    glossa, lingua
  2. Such an organ, as taken from animals and used for food (especially from cows).
    • cold tongue with mustard
  3. Any similar organ, such as the lingual ribbon, or odontophore, of a mollusk; the proboscis of a moth or butterfly; or the lingua of an insect.
  4. (metonymically) A language.
    • He was speaking in his native tongue.
    Synonyms:
    idiom, language, lingo
  5. (obsolete) The speakers of a language, collectively.
    • I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 66:18
  6. (obsolete) A voice, (the distinctive sound of a person's speech); accent (distinctive manner of pronouncing a language).
    • Who are you? Tell me, for more certainty,
      Albeit I’ll swear that I do know your tongue.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

See all 36 meanings of tongue

Noun

tung (plural tungs)

  1. A tung tree.

Proper noun capitalized: Tung

Tung

  1. Synonym of Lincoln Island.
    • A U.S. military plane intruded into China's air space over the area of Tung Island of the Hsisha Islands in Kwangtung Province between 16:00 hours and 16:03 hours on February 9. A spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry has been authorised, in relation to this military provocation by the U.S....1971 February 10 [1971 February 9], “PRC Issues 482d Serious Warning over U.S. Intrusion”, in Daily Report, number 28, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, sourced from Peking NCNA International...
    • “From 1840 hours on March 18, 1972 to 0935 hours on March 20, 1972, one U.S. warship, the George K. MacKenzie intruded into Chinese territorial waters near Tung Island, 16°, 14', 6” north, 112°, 43', 48” east, off the Hsi Sha Islands, Kwantung^([sic – meaning Kwangtung]) Province, China.1972 March 24, Huang Hua, quotee, “Memorandum of Conversation, New York, March 24, 1972, 6:05-7:05 p.m.”, in Office of the Historian, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2012, Historical Documents
    Synonyms:
    Lincoln Island

Synonyms of tung

Forms of tung

pluraltungs
alternative formtongue

Origin of tung

From Middle English tonge, from Old English tung, tunge (“tongue, language”), from Proto-West Germanic *tungā, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ (“tongue”); along with Dutch tong, German Zunge, Swedish tunga, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s.

From Chinese 桐 (tóng).

From Mandarin 東島 /东岛 Wade–Giles romanization: Tung¹-tao³.

Words formed from tung

Phrases with tung

Questions about tung

What does tung mean?
Tung means a tung tree.
What is tung the obsolete spelling of?
Tung is the obsolete spelling of tongue.
What part of speech is tung?
Tung can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of tung?
The plural of tung is tungs.

Words near tung in the dictionary

  1. tuneup
  2. tuneups
  3. tunewise
  4. tunful
  5. tunfuls
  6. tung
  7. Tung Chung
  8. tung oil
  9. tung oil tree
  10. tung tree
  11. tung trees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tung (page history and authors); Tung (page history and authors); tongue (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: “tung.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tung. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.