gunk
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of gunk
An Americanism dating back to 1932; originally a trademark name for a degreasing solvent
Explanation
Gunk is a gloppy, sticky substance, like the gunk you scrape off the soles of your shoes or the gunk at the bottom of a pond. Gunk is an American English slang term that was first used around 1950 to mean "viscous substance." The word comes from a liquid soap made in Massachusetts starting in the 1930s that was also called Gunk. If you buy Gunk today, it's a cleaning product used for car engines (and sold by a company known as GUNK). In general though, gunk is a great word for anything messy, slimy, or grimy.
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.
Bringing it all to a head: a civil trial began last week in a federal court where Elon Musk was trying to oust Altman, his former partner, and gunk up OpenAI’s going-public ambitions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
Smoglandia: The cause of SoCal’s smog is identified and it isn’t the factories spewing black gunk into the sky in support of the war effort.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
Wastewater is filled with human feces, garbage and other gross gunk that carries dangerous disease, and is piped away from our civilization for that reason.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2024
To investigate the impact on indoor air quality, scientists study the gunk that builds up with laboratory models of surfaces.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 14, 2024
He held up a large square bandage coated with sticky brown gunk and plastered it over Nico’s nose.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
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.
