tunnel

Syllables: tun·nel/ˈtʌn(ə)l/

tunnel noun: an underground or underwater passage.

Image: Daniel Budde, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

tunnel (plural tunnels)

An underground or underwater passage.
- In 1865 an outfit called the East London Railway Company bought the Brunel tunnel for £800,000, and in 1869 they opened a railway through it.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 90
A passage through or under some obstacle.
- But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in.1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
- Tunnels often feature in fictional journeys, so I will end with quotations from a fairly recent novel, Howard Spring's "Fame is the Spur", published in 1940, in which there is a journey from Manchester to Bradford via the Calder Valley route: "Ay, we're going through Todmorden. We'll soon be in t'...1957 May, Neil Caplan, “Railways in English Fiction”, in Railway Magazine, page 350
A hole in the ground made by an animal, a burrow.
A wrapper for a protocol that cannot otherwise be used because it is unsupported, blocked, or insecure.
A vessel with a broad mouth at one end, a pipe or tube at the other, for conveying liquor, fluids, etc., into casks, bottles, or other vessels; a funnel.
The opening of a chimney for the passage of smoke; a flue.
- And one great chimney, whose long tonnell thence, / The smoke forth threw1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 29
A level passage driven across the measures, or at right angles to veins which it is desired to reach; distinguished from the drift, or gangway, which is led along the vein when reached by the tunnel.
(figuratively) Anything that resembles a tunnel.
- Especially in the Eden Valley, trees create what is almost a green tunnel (particularly in summer).2021 October 20, Mark Rand, “S&C: a line fit for tourists... and everyone?”, in RAIL, number 942, page 43

Verb

tunnel (third-person singular simple present tunnels, present participle (US) tunneling or (UK) tunnelling, simple past and past participle (US) tunneled or (UK) tunnelled)

(transitive) To make a tunnel through or under something; to burrow.
- The 1955 Act gave powers for compulsory acquisition of "easements", or permission to tunnel beneath dwelling houses instead of, as had previously been necessary, following approximately the course of surface roads.1962 October, “London gets its Victoria tube”, in Modern Railways, page 258
- The 6.5km route is agreed from a junction with the relief lines of the Great Western main line to the west of Slough, the new link would tunnel under the M25 to reach Heathrow's Terminal 5 station, where space has been set aside to accommodate services from the west.2019 October, Ruth Bagley tells James Abbott, “Crunch time for Heathrow western link”, in Modern Railways, page 74
Synonyms:

undermine
(intransitive) To dig a tunnel.
To transmit something through a tunnel (wrapper for an insecure or unsupported protocol).
(transitive) To insert a catheter into a vein to allow long-term use.
To undergo the quantum-mechanical phenomenon where a particle penetrates through a barrier that it classically cannot surmount.

Proper noun capitalized: Tunnel

Tunnel

A locality in the City of Launceston, northern Tasmania, Australia.

tunnel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

tunnel in Hindi

an underground or underwater passage: सुरंग suraṅg

tunnel in Tamil

சுரங்கப் பாதை, குடைவுவழி, மலையூடு வழி, எலி போன்றவை வாழும், அடிநில, வளைப் புழை வழி

tunnel in Marathi

an underground or underwater passage: भुयार bhuyār, बोगदा bogdā, सुरंग suraṅga

tunnel in Urdu

an underground or underwater passage: سُرَن٘گ suraṅg

More languagesFewer languages

tunnel in Bengali: সুড়ঙ্গ śuṛoṅgo
tunnel in Telugu: సొరంగము soraṅgamu
tunnel in Malayalam: തുരങ്കം turaṅkaṁ
tunnel in Kannada: ಸುರಂಗ suraṅga
tunnel in Punjabi: ਸੁਰੰਗ
tunnel in Gujarati: ટનલ ṭanal
tunnel in Odia: ସୁଡ଼ଙ୍ଗ suṛaṅga
tunnel in Sanskrit: सुरङ्गा suraṅgā
tunnel in Assamese: সুড়ঙ্গ xuroṅgo
tunnel in Nepali: टनेल, सुरङ्ग, टनल
tunnel in Arabic: نَفَق nafaq
tunnel in Malay: terowong, terowongan, tembusan
tunnel in Indonesian: terowongan, lorong
tunnel in Thai: อุโมงค์ ù-moong
tunnel in Vietnamese: hầm, đường hầm, hầm chui
tunnel in Myanmar: ဥမင် u.mang, လိုဏ်ခေါင်း luinhkaung:
Sindhi: سِرِنگھَه sirĩgha

Examples of tunnel in a sentence

We'll soon be in t' tunnel, and when we get to t' other end we'll be in Yorkshire," and "Ah think this is t' filthiest tunnel in t' world."1957 May, Neil Caplan, “Railways in English Fiction”, in Railway Magazine, page 350:
There are more than 1,500 railway tunnels in Britain and the majority are still in use, carrying working tracks beneath Britain's most inconvenient geographic features.2020 August 26, Tim Dunn, “Great railway bores of our time!”, in Rail, page 42:

All 40 example sentences with tunnel

Synonyms of tunnel

undermine

Forms of tunnel

Noun
plural	tunnels
Verb
third-person singular present	tunnels
present participle US	tunneling
present participle UK	tunnelling
past participle US	tunneled
past US	tunneled
past participle UK	tunnelled
past UK	tunnelled

Plural of tunnel: tunnels

Origin of tunnel

From Middle English tonnel, from Old French tonel(e), diminutive of tone (“cask”), a word of uncertain origin and affiliation. Related to Old English tunne (“tun; cask; barrel”). More at tun.

Phrases with tunnel

Words that rhyme with tunnel

Questions about tunnel

What does tunnel mean?: Tunnel means an underground or underwater passage.
What is tunnel in Hindi?: Tunnel in Hindi is सुरंग (suraṅg). See Tunnel meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tunnel in a sentence?: We'll soon be in t' tunnel, and when we get to t' other end we'll be in Yorkshire," and "Ah think this is t' filthiest tunnel in t' world."
What part of speech is tunnel?: Tunnel can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tunnel?: Tunnel is pronounced /ˈtʌn(ə)l/.
What is the plural of tunnel?: The plural of tunnel is tunnels.

Words near tunnel in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tunnel (page history and authors); Tunnel (page history and authors); tunnel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); సొరంగము (Telugu) (page history and authors); തുരങ്കം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); tunnel (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ସୁଡ଼ଙ୍ଗ (Odia) (page history and authors); सुरङ्गा (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); tunnel (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tunnel.ogg.

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