tons
- 1A large quantity or number of people or things.
She received tons of messages after sharing the good news.
There were tons of people waiting outside the stadium gates.
Similarlots, loads, heaps, masses, piles
Note
Always plural in this use, and nearly always followed by of: tons of pens, tons of people. The verb agrees with what follows rather than with tons, so you say tons of people were there. It belongs to conversation. In formal writing, many or a great deal says the same thing without the exaggeration.
- 2Plural of ton.
The bridge can support up to forty tons of vehicle weight.
Workers unloaded tons of coal from the freight cars overnight.
Note
How heavy forty tons is depends on which ton is counted. It may mean short tons of 2,000 pounds, long tons of 2,240, or metric tons of 1,000 kilograms. Two other tons measure space rather than weight: the measurement ton of 40 or 42 cubic feet and the register ton of 100. The figurative ton, meaning any overwhelming amount, is the root of the colloquial "lots" sense.
tons is a form of ton
ton, noun: A large, excessive, or overwhelming quantity of something. Full entry
- Forms
- tontons plural
- Spelling
- ton → tons: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
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