funnel
Americannoun
-
funnels
plural
-
a cone-shaped utensil with a tube at the apex for conducting liquid or other substance through a small opening, as into a bottle, jug, or the like.
-
a smokestack, especially of a steamship.
-
a flue, tube, or shaft, as for ventilation.
-
Eastern New England. a stovepipe.
verb (used with object)
-
funnels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
funneled,
past participle, past
-
funnelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
funneling,
present participle
-
funnelling
present participle (especially British)
-
to concentrate, channel, or focus.
They funneled all income into research projects.
-
to pour through or as if through a funnel.
verb (used without object)
-
funnels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
funneled,
past participle, past
-
funnelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
funneling,
present participle
-
funnelling
present participle (especially British)
noun
-
a hollow utensil with a wide mouth tapering to a small hole, used for pouring liquids, powders, etc, into a narrow-necked vessel
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something resembling this in shape or function
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a smokestack for smoke and exhaust gases, as on a steamship or steam locomotive
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a shaft or tube, as in a building, for ventilation
verb
-
to move or cause to move or pour through or as if through a funnel
-
to concentrate or focus or be concentrated or focused in a particular direction
they funnelled their attention on the problem
-
(intr) to take on a funnel-like shape
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
funnelsimple
-
funnelssimple
-
have funneledperfect
-
have funnelledperfect
-
has funneledperfect
-
has funnelledperfect
-
am funnelingprogressive
-
am funnellingprogressive
-
are funnelingprogressive
-
are funnellingprogressive
-
is funnelingprogressive
-
is funnellingprogressive
-
have been funnelingperfect progressive
-
have been funnellingperfect progressive
-
has been funnelingperfect progressive
-
has been funnellingperfect progressive
Past
-
funneledsimple
-
funnelledsimple
-
had funneledperfect
-
had funnelledperfect
-
was funnelingprogressive
-
was funnellingprogressive
-
were funnelingprogressive
-
were funnellingprogressive
-
had been funnelingperfect progressive
-
had been funnellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of funnel
1375–1425; late Middle English fonel < Old Provençal fonilh ( Gascon ) < Vulgar Latin *fundibulum, for Latin infundibulum, derivative of infundere to pour in
Explanation
The cone-shaped tool you use to pour liquid into a small hole is a funnel. The swirling winds of a tornado make the shape of a funnel. This is why they are called funnel clouds. You can also use the word metaphorically to describe something that goes from wide to narrow while moving. If six lanes of traffic must funnel through a tunnel, you'll probably see a traffic jam. And if you photographed the scene from above, the cars would make a triangular shape, as if they formed a flat funnel. If a company is funneling money into research and development, it is spending lots of money in that department. Funnel cake is made by pouring batter through a funnel in to hot oil. Yum!
Vocabulary lists containing funnel
Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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Pestle, Sieve, and Whisk: Useful Words for Cooking Tools
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The White House said the global exemption was being used to "evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids" to the US.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
“While investors may have thought of Copilot as an AI model in itself, it is already working as a tool that helps funnel queries and tasks to the appropriate model,” he wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
As a means of crowd control, the National Park Service has attempted to funnel people out of the valley, where the majority of tourists spend their time and into its less frequented locations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Specifically, the court noted that existing disclosure laws and rules about earmarking donations already act as disincentives for donors hoping to use parties as a means to indirectly funnel money to candidates.
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026
“Two funnel cakes says that’s you in ten years!”
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
He funnels huge amounts of money into those picks so they can win markets and drown out rivals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
The landmark parkrun saw a large turnout, with runners queuing in finish funnels to get their times recorded on a sunny morning in the capital.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
But versatility is also a lost art — collateral damage during the construction of the pipeline that directly funnels social media stars to the screen.
From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2026
Palantir began as a defense contractor and has since found other customers selling a platform that funnels data into simple dashboards that use artificial intelligence to aid decision-making.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2025
He makes a collection of the boat funnels from the lake freighters, checking them through binoculars.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
The scale of that spending, funneled into data centers and chip purchases, has unsettled some investors who worry the AI payoff hasn’t yet materialized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Earlier this year, Lewin funneled $3.8 billion to a small arm of the United Nations, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, quadrupling the budget of the agency.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
Those institutional orders will get funneled through S&P Global’s Equity Bookbuild platform.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
This evolution was thanks to a daring business move from Huang, who funneled the profits Nvidia generated from its gaming business to develop a software layer called Compute Unified Device Architecture, or CUDA.
From MarketWatch ● May 23, 2026
Green lights begin flashing from the ceiling, followed by an announcement funneled through the sound boxes nestled in the ceiling corners.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Every attack was funnelled out wide before a hopeful cross was delivered and cleared in what was essentially a set-piece defending drill.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
Millions more were funnelled into art by Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, a private jet, and the production of the Hollywood movie "The Wolf of Wall Street" by Najib's stepson.
From Barron's ● Dec. 25, 2025
But despite strong earnings releases in recent quarters, traders have started questioning the wisdom of chasing ever-higher prices, with cash mostly funnelled into a handful of big-name companies.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2025
That money was funnelled through a British company owned by Mr Gleave, Alphabet Capital Limited.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2025
The water was calm, and we cut across "the moon way," that funnelled off to the shores of Canada.
From D'Ri and I by Irving Bacheller
The person alleged in an interview that the sponsorship deal was “1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap. It was funneling money from the Clippers through Daktronics back to Kawhi.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
But they are increasingly funneling dollars toward less famous stocks that they are hoping will emerge as the next set of AI superstars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Anthropic, despite its push to source as much compute as possible, may decide to stop funneling its cash to a rival.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 27, 2026
Japan wants to become an asset management superpower, funneling an estimated $7 trillion in mattress money and low-yielding bank accounts into its booming stock market.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
“They're for funneling light before we get our channellors. But we don't get them until we're Level Twos. My older sister let me use hers once, though.”
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
He said high pressure over Europe was funnelling hot air north from northern Africa, with the weather system hindering cloud formation.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
Last week, a federal court in St Louis indicted 14 North Koreans for allegedly being part of a long-running conspiracy aimed at extorting funds from US companies and funnelling money to Pyongyang's weapons programmes.
From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2024
The expected failure of the bill would mean an existing visa policy, which has been widely accused of exacerbating problems by funnelling most international students to a select few city-based universities, will remain in place.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2024
Helsinki says Moscow is funnelling them to the border, a charge the Kremlin denies.
From Reuters ● Nov. 24, 2023
"Listen and believe!" he cried; and funnelling his hands about his lips, he stooped over the central hole.
From At a Winter's Fire by Bernard Edward Joseph Capes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
