"Tonkin" meaning in English

See Tonkin in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

Forms: Tonkins [plural]
Etymology: From a medieval diminutive form of the given name Thomas. Head templates: {{en-proper noun|s}} Tonkin (plural Tonkins)
  1. A surname transferred from the given name.
    Sense id: en-Tonkin-en-name-7rrtY8Fk Categories (other): English surnames, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 3 entries, Pages with entries, Seas Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 11 2 2 3 40 42 Disambiguation of Pages with 3 entries: 17 2 2 3 24 24 3 25 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 12 1 1 2 26 27 2 28 Disambiguation of Seas: 18 3 3 3 37 37
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Proper name

Forms: Tonquin [alternative], Tong-King [alternative]
Etymology: From French Tonkin, from Vietnamese Đông Kinh (“Hanoi; its former kingdom”), from đông (“east, eastern”) + kinh (“capital”), from Middle Chinese 東京 (tuwng kjaeng), q.v. Cognate, through Middle Chinese, of Tokyo. Etymology templates: {{wp}}, {{bor|en|fr|Tonkin}} French Tonkin, {{der|en|vi|Đông Kinh||Hanoi; its former kingdom}} Vietnamese Đông Kinh (“Hanoi; its former kingdom”), {{der|en|ltc|東京}} Middle Chinese 東京 (tuwng kjaeng), {{abbr|q.v.|quo vide; "which see}} q.v. Head templates: {{en-proper noun}} Tonkin
  1. (archaic) Synonym of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Tags: archaic Categories (place): Cities in Vietnam, Places in Vietnam Synonyms: Hanoi [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-Tonkin-en-name-NRflUFXP Categories (other): National capitals, Vietnam Disambiguation of Vietnam: 2 20 23 22 18 15
  2. (historical) A former domain in northern Vietnam. Tags: historical Categories (place): Places in Vietnam Synonyms: Đàng Ngoài
    Sense id: en-Tonkin-en-name-gxxKyoFF Categories (other): Vietnam Disambiguation of Vietnam: 2 20 23 22 18 15
  3. (historical) A former protectorate in northern Vietnam, a colony of France. Tags: historical Categories (place): Places in France, Places in Vietnam Synonyms: Bắc Kỳ
    Sense id: en-Tonkin-en-name-jIgclVYP Categories (other): Former dependent territories, France, Vietnam Disambiguation of France: 14 4 3 66 7 7 Disambiguation of Vietnam: 2 20 23 22 18 15
  4. Ellipsis of the Gulf of Tonkin: a gulf in northern Vietnam. Tags: abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis Alternative form of: the Gulf of Tonkin (extra: a gulf in northern Vietnam) Categories (place): Places in Vietnam
    Sense id: en-Tonkin-en-name-qawl1fl9 Categories (other): Ellipses of places, Gulfs, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 3 entries, Pages with entries, Seas, Vietnam Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 11 2 2 3 40 42 Disambiguation of Pages with 3 entries: 17 2 2 3 24 24 3 25 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 12 1 1 2 26 27 2 28 Disambiguation of Seas: 18 3 3 3 37 37 Disambiguation of Vietnam: 2 20 23 22 18 15
  5. Ellipsis of Gulf of Tonkin incident, a 1964 event used to increase US involvement in the Vietnam War. Tags: abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis Alternative form of: Gulf of Tonkin incident (extra: a 1964 event used to increase US involvement in the Vietnam War)
    Sense id: en-Tonkin-en-name-FeK6Ct3U Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 3 entries, Pages with entries, Seas, Vietnam, Vietnam War Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 11 2 2 3 40 42 Disambiguation of Pages with 3 entries: 17 2 2 3 24 24 3 25 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 12 1 1 2 26 27 2 28 Disambiguation of Seas: 18 3 3 3 37 37 Disambiguation of Vietnam: 2 20 23 22 18 15 Disambiguation of Vietnam War: 1 12 12 11 9 54
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: Gulf of Tonkin, Tonkinese, Tonkin pit viper, Tonkin toad
Etymology number: 2

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Ellipsis of Gulf of Tonkin incident, a 1964 event used to increase US involvement in the Vietnam War."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Gulf of Tonkin incident",
          "w:Gulf of Tonkin incident"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ],
        [
          "used",
          "used"
        ],
        [
          "increase",
          "increase"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "US"
        ],
        [
          "involvement",
          "involvement"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "abbreviation",
        "alt-of",
        "ellipsis"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Tonkin"
}

Download raw JSONL data for Tonkin meaning in English (4.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.