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lunge

/lʌnd͡ʒ/noun, verb

lunge is spelled L-U-N-G-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,912th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, lunge means “A sudden forward movement, especially with a sword” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lunge is lunges.

How many letters and syllables are in lunge?

Letters5: L-U-N-G-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 34,912th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is lunge?

Lunge appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,912th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce lunge?

  • US /lʌnd͡ʒ/
  • Australia /lɐnd͡ʒ/

Lunge has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-lunge.ogg, En-au-lunge.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of lunge

  • lunges plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • longe
  • lungeing present, rare, singular, he/she/it
  • lunging participle, present
  • lunged participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does lunge mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A sudden forward movement, especially with a sword.

  2. 2

    A long rope or flat web line, more commonly referred to as a lunge line, approximately 20–30 feet long, attached to the bridle, lungeing cavesson, or halter of a horse and used to control the animal while lungeing.

  3. 3

    An exercise performed by stepping forward one leg while kneeling with the other leg, then returning to a standing position.

  4. 4

    A fish, the namaycush.

verb

  1. 1

    To (cause to) make a sudden forward movement (present participle: lunging).

    I lunged at the police officer and made a grab for her gun.

  2. 2

    To longe or work a horse in a circle around a handler (present participle: lunging or lungeing).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Lunge in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbond (vers l'avant) (sudden movement), fente (exercise)
GermanAusfall (sudden movement), Ausfallschritt (exercise), losstürzen, ausfallen (to make a sudden movement)
Portugueseimpulso (sudden movement), passada, afundo (exercise), impulsionar (to make a sudden movement)
Spanishembestida (sudden movement), lanzarse (to make a sudden movement), varear (to work a horse in a circle around a handler)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does lunge come from?

From French allonge, from Old French alonge, from alongier, from Vulgar Latin *allongare, from ad + Late Latin longare, from Latin longus. Doublet of allonge.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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