use-icon

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

guide to the dictionary

use-icon

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

The Panelists

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

trunk (trŭngk)
Share:
n.
1.
a. The main woody axis of a tree.
b. Architecture The shaft of a column.
2.
a. The body of a human or other vertebrate, excluding the head and limbs.
b. The thorax of an insect.
3. A proboscis, especially the long prehensile proboscis of an elephant.
4.
a. A main body, apart from tributaries or appendages.
b. The main stem of a blood vessel or nerve apart from the branches.
5. A trunk line.
6. A chute or conduit.
7. Nautical
a. A watertight shaft connecting two or more decks.
b. The housing for the centerboard of a vessel.
8. Nautical Any of certain structures projecting above part of a main deck, as:
a. A covering over the hatches of a ship.
b. An expansion chamber on a tanker.
c. A cabin on a small boat.
9.
a. A covered compartment for luggage and storage, generally at the rear of an automobile.
b. A large packing case or box that clasps shut, used as luggage or for storage.
10. trunks Shorts worn for swimming or other athletics.

[Middle English trunke, from Old French tronc, from Latin truncus; see terə-2 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.