Noun: tunnel
| Singular | tunnel |
| Plural | tunnels |
Sample Sentences
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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:]
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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:]
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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:]
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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:]
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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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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:]
Nouns inflected like tunnel
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
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. See: Old English Nouns '
tunne'.
Verbs referencing "tunnel"
Danish Nouns
tunnel, Dutch Nouns
tunnel, French Nouns
tunnel, Italian Nouns
tunnel, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns
tunnel, Swedish Nouns
tunnel, German Nouns
Tunnel, Catalan Nouns
túnel, Portuguese Nouns
túnel, Spanish Nouns
túnel, Finnish Nouns
tunneli, Czech Nouns
tunel, Ukrainian Nouns
тунель.