Spelunk

//spəˈlʌŋk// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A cave, cavern or grotto. obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    To explore caves.
  2. 2
    explore natural caves wordnet
  3. 3
    To explore a system in depth.

Synonyms

All synonyms
cavecave

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English spelunke, from Old French spelonque and/or Latin spelunca, from Ancient Greek σπῆλυγξ (spêlunx, “cave”), related to σπέος (spéos). Cognates include Middle Dutch spelunke, spelonke, German Spelunke.

Etymology 2

U.S., 1940s. Back-formation from spelunker.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.