What does "trunk" mean?
Part of a body.; The usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches.
Trunk
/tɹʌŋk/ name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Part of a body.; The usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches.
- Grammar: trunk is listed as name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: body, proboscis, torso, anatomy.
- Useful contrasts: arms, branch, branch of government.
- Usage evidence: The label is attached to the trunk.
How to use "trunk"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "trunk" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "trunk" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "trunk" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "trunk" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "trunk" is acting as name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "body" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "trunk", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Part of a body.; The usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches.
- 2 a long flexible snout as of an elephant wordnet
- 3 Part of a body.; The torso; especially, the human torso.
- 4 compartment in an automobile that carries luggage or shopping or tools wordnet
- 5 Part of a body.; 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.
Show 18 more definitions
- 6 luggage consisting of a large strong case used when traveling or for storage wordnet
- 7 A container.; 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.
"There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. Mail bags, so I understand, are being put on board. Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors."
- 8 the body excluding the head and neck and limbs wordnet
- 9 A container.; 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.
"To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chests and trunks"
- 10 the main stem of a tree; usually covered with bark; the bole is usually the part that is commercially useful for lumber wordnet
- 11 A container.; The luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon-style car. Canada, US
"I'm a stunt; ride in the car with some bump in the trunk."
- 12 A container.; A storage compartment fitted behind the seat of a motorcycle.
- 13 A channel for flow of some kind.; A major circuit between telephone switchboards or other switching equipment. US
- 14 A channel for flow of some kind.; A chute or conduit, or a watertight shaft connecting two or more decks.
- 15 A channel for flow of some kind.; A long, large box, pipe, or conductor, made of plank or metal plates, for various uses, as for conveying air to a mine or to a furnace, water to a mill, grain to an elevator, etc.
- 16 A channel for flow of some kind.; A long tube through which pellets of clay, peas, etc., are driven by the force of the breath. A peashooter archaic
"He shot Sugar Plums at them out of a Trunk."
- 17 A channel for flow of some kind.; A flume or sluice in which ores are separated from the slimes in which they are contained.
- 18 In software projects under source control: the most current source tree, from which the latest unstable builds (so-called "trunk builds") are compiled.
- 19 The main line or body of anything.
"the trunk of a vein or of an artery, as distinct from the branches"
- 20 The main line or body of anything.; A main line in a river, canal, railroad, or highway system.
- 21 The main line or body of anything.; The part of a pilaster between the base and capital, corresponding to the shaft of a column.
- 22 A large pipe forming the piston rod of a steam engine, of sufficient diameter to allow one end of the connecting rod to be attached to the crank, and the other end to pass within the pipe directly to the piston, thus making the engine more compact.
- 23 Ellipsis of swimming trunks. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, in-plural
Verb
- 1 To lop off; to curtail; to truncate. obsolete, transitive
"Large streames of bloud out of the truncked stocke / Forth gushed, like fresh water streame from riuen rocke."
- 2 To extract (ores) from the slimes in which they are contained, by means of a trunk. transitive
- 3 To provide simultaneous network access to multiple clients by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies.
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname from German.
Example
"The label is attached to the trunk."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "trunk"?
Common synonyms include: body, proboscis, torso, anatomy, anthrophore, antlia.
How do you use "trunk" in a sentence?
The label is attached to the trunk.
How do you pronounce "trunk"?
Pronounced /tɹʌŋk/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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.
Etymology 2
Borrowed from German Trunk, also a Jewish Ashkenazi surname.