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tank

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A closed container for liquids or gases.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

tangk
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

tæŋk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A closed container for liquids or gases.

  2. An open container or pool for storing water or other liquids.

  3. A pond, pool, or small lake, natural or artificial.

  4. By extension a small pond for the same purpose.

  5. The fuel reservoir of a vehicle.

  6. An armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a gun, and moving on caterpillar tracks.

verb

  1. To fail or fall (often used in describing the economy or the stock market); to degenerate or decline rapidly; to plummet.

  2. To deliberately lose a sports match with the intent of gaining a perceived future competitive advantage.

  3. Singaporecolloquial

    To stand; to tolerate.

  4. To put (fuel, etc.) into a tank.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A closed container for liquids or gases.

Used this way, tank is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use tank

  • “I burned three tanks of gas on the drive to New York.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Closed / open

storage tankwater tank

Fuel

fuel tank

Other combinations

think tankseptic tanktank toptank circuittank car

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • tankernounInflected form

    A cargo ship designed to carry crude oil in bulk.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • tank enginenounCompound term

    A locomotive that carries its own fuel and water.

  • tank farmnounCompound term

    An area used exclusively for storing petroleum in large tanks.

  • tank farmingnounCompound term

    A technique of growing plants (without soil) in water containing dissolved nutrients.

  • tank furnacenounCompound term

    Furnace into one end of which a batch of measured raw materials is shoveled and from the other end molten glass is obtained.

  • tank ironnounCompound term

    Plate iron that is thinner than boilerplate but thicker than sheet iron or stovepipe iron.

  • tank locomotivenounCompound term

    A locomotive that carries its own fuel and water.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: closed container for liquids or gases

storage tanktank car

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.