Word.ws English Dictionary

Tungus

/ˈtʊŋɡʊs/

Tungus noun: a member of any Tungusic people.

Noun

Tungus (plural Tunguses)

  1. A member of any Tungusic people.

Proper noun

Tungus

  1. (dated, obsolete, possibly) The Evenki language.

Forms of Tungus

pluralTunguses
alternative formTungoose
alternative formToongoose

Origin of Tungus

From Russian тунгус (tungus), * supposedly deriving from donki, a self-designation of certain Siberian groups, or alternatively from a Yakut name for the Evenki. * Or, of East Turkic origin, from tunguz (“wild boar, pig”), from Old Turkic [script needed] (tonguz), from Proto-Turkic *toŋuz. * A controversial theory further connects the word with Chinese 東胡 /东胡 (Dōnghú, “Donghu”, literally “Eastern barbarians”), an ancient people of North China. More at Tungusic.

Words formed from Tungus

Questions about Tungus

What does Tungus mean?
Tungus means a member of any Tungusic people.
What part of speech is Tungus?
Tungus can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Tungus?
Tungus is pronounced /ˈtʊŋɡʊs/.
What is the plural of Tungus?
The plural of Tungus is Tunguses.

Words near Tungus in the dictionary

  1. tungstosilicates
  2. tungstosilicic acid
  3. tungstous
  4. Tungting
  5. Tungurahua
  6. Tungus
  7. Tunguses
  8. Tungusian
  9. Tungusic
  10. tungusite
  11. Tunguska event

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Tungus (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: “Tungus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tungus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.