ton
Pluraltons
- 1A large, excessive, or overwhelming quantity of something.
She gets a ton of email every single day.
There were tons of people crowded outside the concert hall.
UsageSay a ton of work or tons of work; both mean the same.
Similarload, heap, lot, abundance, boatload
Note
Hyperbole built on the weight unit: the amount is so large it seems to be weighed by the ton. The weight is pure exaggeration, so the phrase suits work, people, email or anything else that piles up.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The large-quantity sense is a figurative extension of the weight unit. en.wiktionary.org
- 2A unit of weight (mass) equal to 2,000 pounds (about 907 kg) in the US (short ton), 2,240 pounds (about 1,016 kg) in the UK (long ton), or 1,000 kilograms (metric ton, tonne).
The freight container weighed just under one ton.
Engineers rated the crane to lift forty tons safely.
Note
Every weight sense of the word starts from a barrel. Ton is a variant of tun, a cask, shaped by Old French tonne, and the unit was notionally what a tun could hold. The short ton counts its hundredweight as a round 100 pounds, while the long ton counts it at 112. That difference in the hundredweight is the whole 240-pound gap between the two.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- The weight senses derive ultimately from a tun, a large cask. en.wikipedia.org
- Ton is a variant of tun, influenced by Old French tonne. en.wiktionary.org
- The original weight unit notionally represented the contents of a tun. en.wikipedia.org
- The short hundredweight is 100 pounds and the long hundredweight is 112 pounds. nist.gov
- Both tons contain 20 respective hundredweights, so their difference is 20 × (112 − 100) = 240 pounds. nist.gov
- 3A unit of volume equal to 100 cubic feet (about 2.83 m³), used to measure a ship's internal capacity.
The canal charged its tolls per ton of a ship's enclosed space, not per ton of the cargo it carried.
Older ships were registered in tons of internal volume rather than weight.
Less common meanings
- 4A unit of thermal power equal to 12,000 BTU per hour (about 3.5 kW), roughly the cooling rate from melting one short ton of ice each day.
The contractor sized the system at one ton for every 500 square feet.
Larger buildings may need cooling units measured in dozens of tons.
Note
Heating and air-conditioning engineers rate equipment in tons of cooling. The unit is defined by ice: the heat absorbed by melting one short ton of it over a day. Despite the name it measures power, not mass. A three-ton unit weighs nothing like three tons; it removes about 36,000 BTU of heat an hour.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Air-conditioning equipment is rated in tons of cooling. carrier.com
- One refrigeration ton corresponds approximately to melting one short ton of ice over a day. content.ces.ncsu.edu
- The refrigeration ton measures thermal power: 12,000 BTU/h, approximately 3.5 kW. terminology.ashrae.org
- A three-ton cooling rating does not describe the equipment's weight. trane.com
- Three refrigeration tons equal 36,000 BTU/h, calculated as three times 12,000 BTU/h. nist.gov
- 5A sum of 100 pounds sterling, in informal British usage.
She lent her brother a ton until payday.
The repair bill came to over a ton.
UsageA ton is exactly £100, but a ton of money just means a lot of money.
Note
British colloquial speech uses ton for a round hundred, and money is only one of the things it counts. The same word scores points, runs and speeds.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- In British colloquial usage, ton can mean one hundred. en.wikipedia.org
- Ton can denote 100 points, 100 cricket runs, or a speed of 100 mph. en.wiktionary.org
- 6Informal, chiefly British: a score of 100, especially 100 runs by a batsman in cricket or 100 points in darts or snooker.
He brought up his ton with a clean drive through the covers.
The opener was on ninety-eight, agonizingly close to a ton.
Note
Cricket has two words for a batsman's hundred runs: century is the standard one, and ton is its colloquial twin.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- A century denotes a batter's hundred runs in cricket. en.wikipedia.org
- Ton denotes the same cricket milestone as century. en.wikipedia.org
- 7A unit of volume for freight equal to 40 cubic feet in the US or 42 in the UK (about 1.1 or 1.2 m³).
Freight was billed by the ton, each one equal to forty cubic feet.
British shippers reckoned each ton at forty-two cubic feet of cargo.
Note
Freight can be charged for the room it takes up as well as for its weight, and this ton measures space rather than heaviness. Volume is in fact closer to the cask behind the weight ton, since the unit was first notionally the contents of a tun. The American and British reckonings of it differ by two cubic feet.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Freight charges can depend on volume as well as weight; the measurement ton measures volume. en.wikipedia.org
- Ton derives from tun, meaning a cask, and the volume unit was originally notionally equivalent to its contents. en.wiktionary.org
- The American measurement is 40 cubic feet and the British measurement 42, a difference of two cubic feet. en.wikipedia.org
- 8A speed of 100 miles per hour.
He claimed his motorbike could do a ton down the bypass.
Pushing past a ton on a public road is reckless and illegal.
UsageYou do a ton or top a ton.
Note
Mungo Jerry sings 'Do a ton or a ton and twenty-five' in 1970, and The Inbetweeners' Simon reckons a car could 'top a ton.' The phrase isn't limited to roads, either. A 2021 RAIL article has train speeds that 'topped the ton.'
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Mungo Jerry sings the quoted words in the 1970 song 'In the Summertime'. en.wiktionary.org
- 'In the Summertime' was released in 1970. mungojerryworld.com
- Simon says that the car could 'top a ton' in The Inbetweeners, in 'Caravan Club'. en.wiktionary.org
- The expression occurs in a railway context, describing train speeds. en.wiktionary.org
- A 2021 RAIL article contains the words 'topped the ton'. en.wiktionary.org
- 9USTAHN/tɑn/UKTON/tɔ̃/Fashionable society; the people regarded as stylish and of high social standing.
Her marriage secured her a place among the ton.
The whole ton gathered at the duchess's spring ball.
UsageThe ton means the whole set; a man of ton is one member of it.
Similarelite, aristocracy, gentry
Note
Where the 'vogue' sense names the fashion, here the word names the people who set it. Amelia Opie, Byron and Thackeray all use it between 1790 and 1850. Byron calls the set 'the Brahmins of the ton,' and Thackeray says Pen was stamped 'a man of ton.'
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Amelia Opie used this sense within 1790–1850, in Dangers of Coquetry (1790). en.wiktionary.org
- Opie's use denotes fashionable society. en.wiktionary.org
- Byron's use falls within 1790–1850: Don Juan, canto XIII, was first published in 1823. gutenberg.org
- Thackeray's use falls within 1790–1850: Pendennis, chapter 30, appeared in August 1849. en.wikipedia.org
- Byron calls the fashionable gathering 'the Brahmins of the ton' in Don Juan, canto XIII, stanza 83. gutenberg.org
- Thackeray's narrator describes Pen as stamped 'a man of ton' in Pendennis, chapter 30. gutenberg.org
- 10The current fashion or prevailing style of the moment.
If our people of ton are selfish, at any rate they show they are selfish.
1857, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century - 11Synonym of tunny: a tuna, especially the Atlantic bluefin, once also called horse mackerel.
Practice
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Origins
This is a variant of "tun" (meaning a cask), influenced by the Old French word "tonne" (ton).
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Ton is a variant of tun, meaning a cask, influenced by Old French tonne. en.wiktionary.org
English took this from French ton, "manner," a word that goes back to Latin tonus. It shares that origin with tone, tune and tonus, which are doublets.