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Added 10 October 2026

dunk

/dʌŋk/ noun

Latin root: tingō Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about dunk at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A basketball shot in which the basketball is propelled downward into the basket.

verb

Immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate.
dip the garment into the cleaning solution
Make a dunk shot, in basketball.
He dunked the ball
Dip into a liquid while eating.
She dunked the piece of bread in the sauce

Origin

From Pennsylvania German dunke, from Middle High German dunken, from Old High German dunkōn (“to dip, submerge, dunk”), from Proto-West Germanic *þunkōn (“to make wet”), possibly from Proto-Germanic *þunkōną, from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to moisten, wet”). Cognate with German tunken (“to dunk”), Latin tingō (“to wet, moisten”), Ancient Greek τέγγω (téngō, “to wet, moisten”). Related to taint, tincture, tint.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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