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PlainSpell

tong

/tɔŋ/noun, verb

tong is spelled T-O-N-G: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tong means “An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tong is tongs.

How many letters and syllables are in tong?

Letters4: T-O-N-G
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.7 times per million words; the 21,516th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is tong?

Tong appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th 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 tong?

  • UK /tɒŋ/
  • US /tɔŋ/
  • /tɑŋ/

Tong 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tong.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with tong

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

tong vs tongue0 B

Also written: tongue.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with tong?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tong from its last stressed vowel (/ɔŋ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of tong

  • tongs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • tonging participle, present
  • tonged participle, past

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

What does tong mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands.

  2. 2

    A Chinese lineage organization responsible for managing ancestral land.

  3. 3

    A Chinese secret society or gang.

verb

  1. 1

    To use tongs.

  2. 2

    To grab, manipulate or transport something using tongs.

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

Tong in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpince (tool), pincer (to use tongs), tong (secret society)
GermanGreifzange (tool), mit einer Zange halten (to use tongs), Tong (secret society), mit einer Zange greifen (to grab, manipulate or transport something…)
Portuguesetenaz (tool), atazanar, atanazar, atenazar (to use tongs)
Spanishtenaza (tool), usar tenaza (to use tongs)

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 tong come from?

From Middle English tonge (“tongs, fang”), tange, from Old English tange, from Proto-West Germanic *tangu, from Proto-Germanic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”). Cognate with Old Norse tǫng (modern Icelandic töng), Old High German zanga (modern German Zange). Other cognates include Sanskrit दशति (dáśati, “to bite”) and Albanian dang (“bite, nip”).

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

What to look up after tong