tong

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɒŋ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɔŋ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /tɑŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɒŋ

From Middle English tonge (“tongs, fang”), tange, from Old English tange, from Proto-West Germanic *tangu, from Proto-Germanic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”). Cognate with Old Norse tǫng (modern Icelandic töng), Old High German zanga (modern German Zange). Other cognates include Sanskrit दशति (dáśati, “to bite”) and Albanian dang (“bite, nip”).

tong (plural tongs)

1. (mostly plural) An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands.
   • 1998, Alberdina Houtman, Marcel Poorthuis, Joshua Schwartz, editors, Sanctity of time and space in tradition and modernity, page 232:

     […] these attributes are concrete expressions of God's care and providence and therefore not man-made. This explains the quite bizarre presence of a ‘pair’ of tongs in some lists: in order to make a tong one needs a tong, and how could the first tong be made without a tong?

• pipe tong
• tonging
• port tong
• tooth and tong

tong (third-person singular simple present tongs, present participle tonging, simple past and past participle tonged)

1. (intransitive) To use tongs.
2. (transitive) To grab, manipulate or transport something using tongs.

• tongs

From Cantonese 堂 (tong⁴).

tong (plural tongs)

1. A Chinese lineage organization responsible for managing ancestral land.
   • 1995, Legislative Council of Hong Kong, “Block Crown Lease (Cheung Chau) Ordinance”, in Hong Kong Government Gazette‎^[1], page A2772:

     An Ordinance to provide for the termination of the Block Crown Lease of Cheung Chau granted to Wong Wai Tsak Tong and for sub-lessees under the Block Crown Lease to hold directly from the Crown.

2. A Chinese secret society or gang.

• triad
• yakuza

tong (plural tongs)

1. Obsolete spelling of tongue.
   • 1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster:

     Or plaine and perfite way of teachyng children, to vnderstand, write, and speake, the Latin tong, but specially purposed for the priuate brynging vp of youth in Ientlemen and Noble mens houses, and commodious also for all such, as haue forgot the Latin tonge, and would, by themselues, without a Scholemaster, in short tyme, and with small paines, recouer a sufficient habilitie, to vnderstand, write, and speake Latin.

From Dutch tong, from Middle Dutch tonge, from Old Dutch tunga, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s.

• IPA^(key): /tɔŋ/

• Audio:

  (file)

tong (plural tonge)

1. tongue

• biltong
• tongvis

tong

1. love

• IPA^(key): /tɔŋ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tong
• Rhymes: -ɔŋ

From Middle Dutch tonge, from Old Dutch tunga, from Proto-West Germanic *tungā, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s.

tong f (plural tongen, diminutive tongetje n)

1. tongue

• Afrikaans: tong
• Negerhollands: tong, toṅ, tung
  • → Virgin Islands Creole: ton (dated)
• Skepi Creole Dutch: tunk
• →? Sranan Tongo: tongo
  • → Aukan: tongo
  • → Kwinti: tongo
  • → Saramaccan: tongò

From etymology 1.

tong m (plural tongen, diminutive tongetje n)

1. a kind of flatfish, the common sole, Solea solea

   Synonym: zeetong

From Australian English thong.

• IPA^(key): /tɔ̃ɡ/

• Audio:

  (file)

tong f (plural tongs)

1. flip-flop, thong

   Synonyms: (informal) clic-clac, (Canada, informal) gougonne, (Belgium, Africa) slache, (West Africa) tapette, claquette

For pronunciation and definitions of tong – see 東 (“east; host; etc.”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 東).

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɔŋ]
• Hyphenation: tong

From Malay tong, from Hokkien 桶 (thóng).

tong

1. barrel

   Synonym: tahang

Onomatopoeic.

tong

1. sound of a gong, kentungan.

From Betawi [Term?], from Hokkien 童 (tâng/tông).

tong

1. (dialect, Jakarta) Clipping of entong (“boy”).

• “tong” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

• Rhymes: -oŋ

From Chinese 桶. Related to tahang.

tong (plural tong-tong, informal 1st possessive tongku, 2nd possessive tongmu, 3rd possessive tongnya)

1. barrel, tub, bin

• Indonesian: tong

From Dutch ton.

tong (plural tong-tong, informal 1st possessive tongku, 2nd possessive tongmu, 3rd possessive tongnya)

1. ton

tong

1. Nonstandard spelling of tōng.
2. Nonstandard spelling of tóng.
3. Nonstandard spelling of tǒng.
4. Nonstandard spelling of tòng.

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

tong

1. Alternative form of tonge (“tongue”)

• IPA^(key): /tɔŋ/

From torang.

tong

1. Short for torang.

From Malay tong or Indonesian tong, from Hokkien 桶 (thóng).

tong

1. barrel (a round vessel made from staves bound with a hoop)

From Old Norse tǫng.

tong f (definite singular tonga, indefinite plural tenger, definite plural tengene)

1. (a pair of) pliers, pincers

• knipetong

• tang (Bokmål)

• “tong” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈtoŋ/ [ˈt̪oŋ]
• Rhymes: -oŋ
• Syllabification: tong

Borrowed from Hokkien, possibly either:

• 當／当 (tong, “to bear; to take responsibility; to match equally”) as recorded in Barclay (1923) in Douglas (1873), where "the person who supplies a private gambling party with room, cards, and food, (customarily) receives a percentage of the winnings" as per Barclay (1923).
• 東／东 (tong, “host”, literally “east”) according to Manuel (1948) as in 做東／做东 (chòe-tong / chò-tong, “to act as a host”) or 作東／作东 (chok-tong) as recorded in Douglas (1873), because it was customary in China for the host to sit on the east side of the room or table when receiving a guest, who usually stays on the west side, as per Manuel (1948).

Chan-Yap (1980) also records a ⟨“tôŋ”⟩ (POJ: tong), which she described as 'percentage cut of a gambling taken from winners', though she was not clear on which term in Hokkien that she meant by this.
Compare Ilocano tong (“bribe money”), agtong (“to give bribe money”).

tong (Baybayin spelling ᜆᜓᜅ᜔) (colloquial)

1. (gambling) percentage cut or commission of the winnings taken from the winner/s for the banker/dealer or owner of the gambling house

   Synonyms: kulas, sapinto, hulog

2. (slang) bribe

   Synonyms: suhol, lagay, pabagsak, parating

3. (slang) money

• tong-its
• pong
• kang
• huweteng
• kuwaho

Borrowed from Hokkien 黨／党 (tóng, “faction; club; cabal”), as recorded in Douglas (1873). Compare English tong.

tong (Baybayin spelling ᜆᜓᜅ᜔) (colloquial)

1. association; political party; secret society

• “tong”, in KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2024
• “tong”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018
• Zorc, R. David, San Miguel, Rachel (1993) Tagalog Slang Dictionary, Manila: De La Salle University Press, →ISBN, page 144
• Chan-Yap, Gloria (1980) “Hokkien Chinese borrowings in Tagalog”, in Pacific Linguistics, volume B, number 71 (PDF), Canberra, A.C.T. 2600.: The Australian National University, page 146
• Santos, Vito C. (1978) Vicassan's Pilipino-English Dictionary, Revised edition (overall work in Tagalog and English), With an Introduction by Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Metro Manila: National Book Store, →ISBN, page 2521
• Panganiban, José Villa (1973) Diksyunaryo-Tesauro Pilipino-Ingles (overall work in Tagalog and English), Quezon City: Manlapaz Publishing Co., page 984
• Manuel, E. Arsenio (1948) Chinese elements in the Tagalog language: with some indication of Chinese influence on other Philippine languages and cultures and an excursion into Austronesian linguistics, Manila: Filipiniana Publications, page 65
• Barclay, Thomas (1923) “當 tong”, in Supplement to Dictionary of the Amoy Colloquial Language (overall work in Hokkien and English), Shanghai: The Commercial Press, Limited, page 239
• Douglas, Carstairs (1873) “tsok-tong”, in Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, [With 1923 Supplement after the Appendix by Thomas Barclay, Shanghai: Commercial Press, Ltd.] edition (overall work in Hokkien and English), London: Trübner & Co., page 527; New Edition (With Chinese Character Glosses) edition, London: Presbyterian Church of England, 1899, page 527
• Douglas, Carstairs (1873) “tóng”, in Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, [With 1923 Supplement after the Appendix by Thomas Barclay, Shanghai: Commercial Press, Ltd.] edition (overall work in Hokkien and English), London: Trübner & Co., page 528; New Edition (With Chinese Character Glosses) edition, London: Presbyterian Church of England, 1899, page 528

Other scripts
Yangi Imlo
Cyrillic	тонг‍
Latin	tong‍
Perso-Arabic (Afghanistan)

From Proto-Turkic *taŋ.

tong (plural tonglar)

1. dawn, daybreak

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [tawŋ͡m˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [tawŋ͡m˧˧] ~ [tɔŋ˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [tawŋ͡m˧˧]

tong

1. done for, screwed

   mất tong một buổi chiều mà chẳng tiến triển gì ― an afternoon wasted without any significant progress

   • 2001, Chu Lai, Cuộc đời dài lắm, NXB Văn học, page 199:

     Mưa. Thế là lại đi tong một ngày mủ vì mưa nữa rồi!

     Rain. So yet another day's worth of latex gone to waste because of the rain!