Tunnel Meaning
/ˈtʌn(ə)l/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn underground or underwater passage.
nounA passage through or under some obstacle.
Sentence Examples
The train traversed a tunnel.
The sightseeing bus ran through a long tunnel.
The tunnel is a remarkable feat of engineering.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The construction team built a long ____ under the river to connect the two cities.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The train traveled through a long ____ under the high mountain, emerging on the other side into a sunny valley today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French tonnelle (“net”) or tonel (“cask”), diminutive of Old French tonne (“cask”), a word of uncertain origin and affiliation. Related to Old English tunne (“tun; cask; barrel”). More at tun.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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' 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 26, 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:
"And one great chimney, whose long tonnell thence, / The smoke forth threw"
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 29:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The construction team built a long ____ under the river to connect the two cities.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The train traveled through a long ____ under the high mountain, emerging on the other side into a sunny valley today.