Trunk

How to spell trunk

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce trunk

What does trunk mean?

1. nounThe main woody stem of a tree, from which the branches grow.
2. nounA large rigid box or chest with a hinged lid, used for storing or transporting belongings.
3. nounThe long flexible snout of an elephant, used for grasping, drinking and smelling.
4. nounThe rear luggage compartment of a car, known in British English as the boot.
5. nounThe main part of the human or animal body, excluding the head and limbs.

Trunk in a sentence

• The storm split the old oak trunk right down the middle.

• She stored her grandmother's quilts in a cedar trunk in the attic.

• The elephant curled its trunk around the bundle of hay.

• He loaded the groceries into the trunk and shut the lid.

• The physiotherapist asked him to rotate his trunk slowly to the left.

• He carved his initials into the rough bark of the trunk.

Where does trunk come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Trunk arrived in English in the 1400s from the Old French tronc, which came directly from the Latin truncus. In Latin truncus meant the main stem of a tree once the branches had been lopped off, and as an adjective it meant 'cut short' or 'maimed', the same idea preserved in the word 'truncate'. From the tree-stem meaning the word spread outward by resemblance: the human torso looked like a stout central stem, so it too became a trunk, and a sturdy travelling chest, often built from a hollowed log, took the name as well. The elephant sense is a later and slightly muddled development, probably reinforced by confusion with the French trompe (a horn or trumpet), but it settled comfortably alongside the others. Because the word is short and phonetically regular, the spelling rarely causes trouble; the only quirk is that the spoken -ng- sound is written with a plain n before the k.

How the word is built

• trunk (single root, from Latin truncus: tree stem, body)