Meaning & use
tusk
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Meanings
nouncountable
A long, pointed tooth that grows out of the mouth of some animals, such as elephants and walruses.
Grammar: Countable: one tusk, two tusks. Often used in the plural when talking about both teeth.
Patterns
- a pair of tusks
- elephant tusks
- ivory tusks
The elephant used its tusks to push over the small tree.
Walruses have long tusks that help them climb out of the water onto ice.
Poachers illegally hunt elephants for their tusks.
noununcountable
The hard, white material of these teeth, often called ivory, used for making decorative objects.
Grammar: Uncountable when referring to the material: made of tusk, not 'a tusk'.
Patterns
- made of tusk
- carved from tusk
The handles of the old knives were made of tusk.
Trade in tusk was banned to protect endangered animals.
Word forms
| plural | tusks |
|---|
Common combinations
- elephant tusk
- The museum displayed a huge elephant tusk.
- ivory tusk
- Ivory tusks are illegal to sell in many countries.
- sharp tusk
- The boar's sharp tusks can cause serious injury.
- pair of tusks
- The walrus had a magnificent pair of tusks.
Synonyms and how they differ
- horn
- A horn is a hard growth on the head of an animal like a rhinoceros or cow, not a tooth; tusks are always teeth.
- fang
- A fang is a sharp tooth used for biting, especially in snakes and dogs; it is usually smaller and not a long protruding tooth.
- ivory
- Ivory is the material of tusks, not the tooth itself; you can say 'a tusk made of ivory' but not 'an ivory' for the tooth.
Word family
- tusked adjective
- Having tusks, as in 'a tusked elephant'.
- tuskless adjective
- Without tusks, as in 'a tuskless elephant'.
Commonly confused: tusk or task? tusk or tuck?
tusk vs task
Task means a piece of work; tusk means the animal tooth. They sound similar but have different vowel sounds: /tɑːsk/ vs /tʌsk/ in British English.
tusk vs tuck
Tuck means to push something into a small space; tusk is the tooth. They are different words.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'tusk' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Only elephants and a few other animals have tusks, and they are made of ivory. Birds have beaks, not tusks; you write with a pen, not a tusk; and trees have trunks, not tusks.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tusk”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.