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Meaning & use

spelunk

verb·AdvancedinformalAmerican

Last updated

UK/spɪˈlʌŋk/
US/spɪˈlʌŋk/

Meaning

  1. verbintransitiveinformal

    To explore natural caves as a hobby, usually by crawling, climbing, and using a lamp.

    Grammar: No object: they spelunk every weekend. The activity word is spelunking.

    Patterns

    • spelunk in somewhere
    • go spelunking

    We decided to spelunk in the limestone caves near the river.

    He likes to spelunk on weekends with his cousins.

    They spelunk only with a guide who knows the tunnels.

Word forms

third person singularspelunks
past tensespelunked
past participlespelunked
-ing formspelunking

Common combinations

go spelunking
Let's go spelunking in the caves this Saturday.
spelunk in a cave
They love to spelunk in a cave that few people know.
spelunk for fun
Some people spelunk for fun, others for science.
spelunk with a guide
Beginners should spelunk with a guide.
spelunk underground
The group spelunked underground for five hours.

Synonyms and how they differ

cave
Cave as a verb is the common British choice and sounds more general than spelunk.
pothole
Pothole is the British word for exploring deep vertical cave systems and is more specific than spelunk.
explore
Explore is general and can apply to any place, while spelunk is only for caves.

Word family

spelunker noun
a person who explores caves for fun
spelunking noun
the sport or hobby of exploring caves
speleology noun
the scientific study of caves
speleologist noun
a scientist who studies caves

Commonly confused: spelunk or speleology?

spelunk vs speleology

Speleology is the scientific study of caves, whereas spelunking is exploring them for recreation.

Practice

What would people who spelunk most likely carry?

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