- Also called: long ton Brit a unit of weight equal to 2240 pounds or 1016.046909 kilograms
- Also called: short ton, net ton US a unit of weight equal to 2000 pounds or 907.184 kilograms
- Also called: metric ton, tonne a unit of weight equal to 1000 kilograms
- Also called: freight ton a unit of volume or weight used for charging or measuring freight in shipping. It depends on the type of material being shipped but is often taken as 40 cubic feet, 1 cubic metre, or 1000 kilograms
- Also called: measurement ton, shipping ton a unit of volume used in shipping freight, equal to 40 cubic feet, irrespective of the commodity shipped
- Also called: register ton a unit of internal capacity of ships equal to 100 cubic feet
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
ton1 /tʌn/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
-ton-, root.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Weights and Measuresa unit of weight, equivalent to 2000 pounds (0.907 metric ton) (short ton) in the U.S. and 2240 pounds (1.016 metric tons) (long ton) in Great Britain.
- Weights and Measuresmetric ton.
- Informal TermsOften, tons. [plural] a great quantity;
a lot: [~ + a plural noun]:a ton of pencils.[~ + a uncountable noun]tons of money.
-ton-, root.
- -ton- comes from Greek, where it has the meaning "sound.'' This meaning is found in such words as: atonal, baritone, detonate, intonation, intone, monotone, monotonous, overtone, semitone, tonal, tone, tonic, undertone.
ton1 (tun),USA pronunciation
n.
ton2 (Fr. tôn),USA pronunciationn., pl. tons
(Fr. tôn).USA pronunciation
ton•ish, ton•nish
(ton′ish)USA pronunciation, adj.
ton ′ish•ly, ton′nish•ly, adv.
ton ′ish•ness, ton′nish•ness, n.
-ton,
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- a unit of weight, equivalent to 2000 pounds (0.907 metric ton) avoirdupois (short ton) in the U.S. and 2240 pounds (1.016 metric tons) avoirdupois (long ton) in Great Britain.
- Also called freight ton. a unit of volume for freight that weighs one ton, varying with the type of freight measured, as 40 cubic feet of oak timber or 20 bushels of wheat.
- See metric ton.
- See displacement ton.
- a unit of volume used in transportation by sea, commonly equal to 40 cubic feet (1.13 cu. m) (shipping ton or measurement ton.)
- a unit of internal capacity of ships, equal to 100 cubic feet (2.83 cu. m) (register ton.)
- Often, tons.[Informal.]a great quantity;
a lot:a ton of jokes; tons of wedding presents. - British Termsa speed of 100 miles per hour.
- 1350–1400; Middle English; variant of tun
ton2 (Fr. tôn),USA pronunciation
- high fashion; stylishness.
- the current fashion, style, or vogue.
- Latin tonus tone
- French
- 1755–65
ton ′ish•ness, ton′nish•ness, n.
-ton,
- a suffix formerly used to form nouns from adjectives:simpleton; singleton.
- variant of dialect, dialectal tone one (see tother)
tonne (tun),USA pronunciation n.
- See metric ton.
- French; see ton1
- 1900–05
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
ton /tʌn/ n
ton /tʌn/ n
- slang chiefly Brit a score or achievement of a hundred, esp a hundred miles per hour, as on a motorcycle
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
tonne /tʌn/ n
- a unit of mass equal to 1000 kg or 2204.6 poundsAlso called (not in technical use): metric ton
'a ton' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):