trunk
/tɹʌŋk/noun, verb
trunk is spelled T-R-U-N-K. The wrong spelling people search most is turnk: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 78 of all searches for the word. Trunk is a noun meaning “The usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches”. The plural of trunk is trunks.
How many letters and syllables are in trunk?
| Letters | 5: T-R-U-N-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,784th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, turnk, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| 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 do you spell trunk?
Trunk is spelled T-R-U-N-K. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 78 of the searches for trunk in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is trunk?
Trunk appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th 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 trunk?
- UK /tɹʌŋk/
- /tɹʊŋk/
- US /tɹʌŋk/
Trunk 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-trunk.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with trunk?
8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as trunk from its last stressed vowel (/ʌŋk/):
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 trunk
- trunks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- trunking participle, present
- trunked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does trunk mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches.
- 2
The torso; especially, the human torso.
- 3
The conspicuously extended, mobile, nose-like organ of an animal such as a sengi, a tapir or especially an elephant. The trunks of various kinds of animals might be adapted to probing and sniffing, as in the sengis, or be partly prehensile, as in the tapir, or be a versatile prehensile organ for manipulation, feeding, drinking and fighting as in the elephant.
- 4
A large suitcase, chest, or similar receptacle for carrying or storing personal possessions, usually with a hinged, often domed lid, and handles at each end, so that generally it takes two persons to carry a full trunk.
- 5
A box or chest usually covered with leather, metal, or cloth, or sometimes made of leather, hide, or metal, for holding or transporting clothes or other goods.
- 6
CanadaUSThe luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon-style car.
- 7
A storage compartment fitted behind the seat of a motorcycle.
- 8
USA major circuit between telephone switchboards or other switching equipment.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo lop off; to curtail; to truncate.
- 2
To extract (ores) from the slimes in which they are contained, by means of a trunk.
- 3
To provide simultaneous network access to multiple clients by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Trunk in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tronc , malle, coffre , trompe , coffre (de voiture), valise |
| German | Stamm, Baumstamm , Koffer, Truhe, Schrankkoffer, Schiffskoffer |
| Portuguese | tronco , baú , tromba , porta-malas, porta-bagagem, mala |
| Spanish | tronco, cepa , baúl , trompa , cajuela |
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 trunk come from?
From Middle English tronke, trunke, from Old French tronc (“alms box, tree trunk, headless body”), from Latin truncus (“a stock, lopped tree trunk”), from truncus (“cut off, maimed, mutilated”). For the verb, compare French tronquer, and see truncate. Doublet of truncus and tronk.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).