Tuff
//tʌf// adj, name, noun
adj, name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A light porous rock, now especially a rock composed of compacted volcanic ash varying in size from fine sand to coarse gravel. countable, uncountable
"This is what makes an ignimbrite; the general term for this kind of volcaniclastic rock is ‘tuff’."
- 2 hard volcanic rock composed of compacted volcanic ash wordnet
Adjective
- 1 Eye dialect spelling of tough. alt-of, ironic, often, pronunciation-spelling
"Tuff Stuff teaches that while life may go smoothly most of the time, ..."
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"This is what makes an ignimbrite; the general term for this kind of volcaniclastic rock is ‘tuff’."
Etymology
From French tuffe, tuf, from Italian tufo, from Latin tōfus. Doublet of tufa.
Related phrases
More for "tuff"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.