noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Ellipsis of palatine tonsil. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
2. 2
   either of two masses of lymphatic tissue one on each side of the oral pharynx wordnet
3. 3
   Any of various small masses of lymphoid tissues.

Synonyms

All synonyms

faucial tonsilpalatine tonsiltonsillatonsilla

Example

More examples

"He had an abscess on his tonsil."

Etymology

Borrowed from French tonsille or Latin tonsillae (“the tonsils in the throat”, plural). First attested in the late 16th century,

Related phrases

to the tonsilstonsil hockeytonsil stonetonsil tennisup to the tonsilslingual tonsilpalatine tonsil

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