tusk
/ˈtʌsk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ˈtʊsk/
tusk noun: one of a pair of elongated pointed teeth (either cuspids or incisors) that extend outside the mouth of an animal such as walrus, elephant or wild boar, and which continue to grow throughout the animal's life.
Noun (1)
tusk (plural tusks)
- One of a pair of elongated pointed teeth (either cuspids or incisors) that extend outside the mouth of an animal such as walrus, elephant or wild boar, and which continue to grow throughout the animal's life.
- Until the CITES sales ban, elephant tusks were the 'backbone' of the legal ivory trade.
- A small projection on a (tusk) tenon.
- A tusk shell.
- A projecting member like a tenon, and serving the same or a similar purpose, but composed of several steps, or offsets, called teeth.
- A sharp point.
- The share of a plough.
Verb
tusk (third-person singular simple present tusks, present participle tusking, simple past and past participle tusked)
Noun (2)
tusk (plural tusks)
Proper noun capitalized: Tusk
IPA/ˈtuːsk/
Tusk
- A male surname from Kashubian
tusk meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
tusk in Hindi
- pointed tooth
- खाँग khāṅg, गजदंत gajdant
tusk in Tamil
- pointed tooth
- தந்தம் tantam, கொம்பு kompu
tusk in Urdu
- tusk
- دانت dā̃t
tusk in Bengali
- pointed tooth
- গজদন্ত gojodonto
More languagesFewer languages
- tusk in Telugu
- దంతము dantamu
- tusk in Malayalam
- കൊമ്പ് kompŭ, തേറ്റ tēṟṟa
- tusk in Kannada
- ದಂತ danta
- tusk in Punjabi
- ਡੰਦ ḍand
- tusk in Assamese
- দাঁত dãt
- tusk in Tagalog
- salimao, pangil
- tusk in Arabic
- نَاب nāb
- tusk in Malay
- gading, taring
- tusk in Persian
- یشک yašk
- tusk in Thai
- งา ngaa, ทนต์ ton
- tusk in Vietnamese
- ngà
- tusk in Myanmar
- စွယ် cwai, ဆင်စွယ် hcangcwai
Examples of tusk in a sentence
- As poachers target elephants with large tusks, the species may be slowly evolving towards tusklessness.
- Only the male Indian elephant bears tusks.
- A boar hooving the dust in anticipation of sinking a tusk into her flank?
Synonyms of tusk
Forms of tusk
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tusks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tusks |
| present participle | tusking |
| past participle | tusked |
| past | tusked |
Origin of tusk
From Middle English tusk (also tux, tusch), from Old English tūsc, tūx (“canine tooth, tusk, molar”), from Proto-West Germanic *tų̄sk, *tunsk, from Proto-Germanic *tunþskaz (“canine tooth”), extended form of *tanþs (“tooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts (“tooth”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tusk (“tooth”), West Frisian tosk (“tooth”), Icelandic toskur (“a tusk, tooth”) (whence the Old Norse and Icelandic Ratatoskr and Ratatoskur respectively), Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌸𐌿𐍃 (tunþus, “tooth”) and *𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌹 (*tundi, “thorn, tooth”). Doublet of tush. More at tooth.
Borrowed from Polish Tusk, from Kashubian Tuzk, a variant of Tuzek.
Words formed from tusk
Phrases with tusk
Words that rhyme with tusk
Questions about tusk
- What does tusk mean?
- Tusk means one of a pair of elongated pointed teeth (either cuspids or incisors) that extend outside the mouth of an animal such as walrus, elephant or wild boar, and which continue to grow throughout the animal's life.
- What is tusk in Hindi?
- Tusk in Hindi is खाँग (khāṅg), गजदंत (gajdant). See Tusk meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tusk?
- Tusk can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce tusk?
- Tusk is pronounced /ˈtʌsk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tusk?
- The plural of tusk is tusks.
Words near tusk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tusk (page history and authors); Tusk (page history and authors); دانت (Urdu) (page history and authors); ದಂತ (Kannada) (page history and authors); দাঁত (Assamese) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tusk.wav.
Cite this entry: “tusk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tusk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.