TON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ton mean? 

• TON (noun)
  The noun TON has 2 senses:

1. a United States unit of weight equivalent to 2000 pounds

2. a British unit of weight equivalent to 2240 pounds

  Familiarity information: TON used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A United States unit of weight equivalent to 2000 pounds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

net ton; short ton; ton

Hypernyms ("ton" is a kind of...):

avoirdupois unit (any of the units of the avoirdupois system of weights)

Meronyms (parts of "ton"):

cental; centner; cwt; hundredweight; quintal; short hundredweight (a United States unit of weight equivalent to 100 pounds)

Holonyms ("ton" is a part of...):

kiloton (one thousand tons)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A British unit of weight equivalent to 2240 pounds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

gross ton; long ton; ton

Hypernyms ("ton" is a kind of...):

avoirdupois unit (any of the units of the avoirdupois system of weights)

Meronyms (parts of "ton"):

cwt; hundredweight; long hundredweight (a British unit of weight equivalent to 112 pounds)

 Context examples 

This led to an increase, by 1.2 tons, of the carbon stored in both vegetation and soil in those areas since 1986.

(Fire control harms biodiversity in Brazilian savannah, SciDev.Net)

Had the emissions met standards, the vehicles would have emitted closer to 8.6 million tons of NOx.

(Diesel Pollutes More Than Lab Tests Detect, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A gigaton is one billion tons.

(New Study Brings Antarctic Ice Loss Into Sharper Focus, NASA)

Out I went in my little cock-boat—you know my sixty-ton yawl, Charlie?

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is estimated there are 7,500 tons of trash in space.

(Australia Developing Lasers to Track, Destroy Space Junk, VOA)

Every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the ocean.

(Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Growing Rapidly, Study Finds, VOA)

It is so dry that one would need to process more than a metric ton of regolith in order to collect 16 ounces of water.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)

The U.N. estimates that about 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in the world’s oceans every year.

(Researchers Discover Microplastics in 100 Percent of People Studied, VOA)

As a comparison, a typical terrestrial forest stores about 30,000 metric tons per square kilometer, mostly in the form of wood.

(Sharks, the seagrass protectors, National Science Foundation)

He must not head mobs, or set the ton in dress.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)