Tubes

How to spell tubes

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce tubes

What does tubes mean?

1. nounHollow cylinders of metal, glass, rubber, or plastic used to carry or hold liquids, gases, or other materials.

Tubes in a sentence

• The plumber replaced the corroded copper tubes under the sink.

• The chemistry lab stored its samples in sealed glass tubes.

Where does tubes come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin tubus, which meant a pipe or hollow cylinder, closely related to tuba, the long straight trumpet of the Roman army. French borrowed the Latin form as tube, and English took it from French in the seventeenth century, originally to describe any hollow pipe used to carry liquid or air. Over time the meaning widened enormously, covering everything from the tube of a telescope to the soft metal containers for toothpaste and paint. In Britain it also became the affectionate name for the London Underground railway, whose deep round tunnels resemble vast pipes. The spelling is reassuringly regular: the silent final 'e' of tube simply makes way for the plural 's', so tubes carries no hidden trap.

How the word is built

• tube (hollow cylinder, from Latin tubus 'pipe')
• -s (plural suffix)