Eng
adj, name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The name of the Latin script letter Ŋ/ŋ, formed by combining the letters n and g, used in the IPA, Sami, Mende, and some Australian aboriginal languages.
- 2 Initialism of electronic newsgathering. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
- 3 The velar nasal consonant found in such words as song or wink.
- 1 Narrow. obsolete, regional
"The hole was too eng for him to get through."
- 1 A surname.
- 2 Abbreviation of England. abbreviation, alt-of
- 3 Abbreviation of England abbreviation, alt-of
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"They have taken the two brothers and filled Chang full of warm water and sugar and Eng full of whisky, and in twenty-five minutes it was not possible to tell which was the drunkest."
Etymology
Probably from Dutch eng (“narrow”), also compare Old English enge (“narrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *angī, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *anguz. No mention of the word is found in any surviving Middle English text, save for the Middle English compound word ang-nail. Related to Dutch eng (“narrow”), German eng (“narrow”), Low German enj (“confined, narrow”), Luxembourgish enk (“narrow”).
Probably created by analogy with other names for nasal consonants em (m) and en (n).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.