tonne
Americannoun
-
tonnes
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tonne
From French, dating back to 1900–05; see origin at ton 1
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:
London white sugar futures hit $541 a tonne in mid-August, their highest since April 2025, while New York raw sugar futures jumped 4% on the day India announced its imports.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
It later emerged he had been negotiating his plea for months, a fact which she said "hit me like a tonne of bricks".
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Launching a tonne of cargo can cost tens of millions of pounds, while a trip to Mars usually takes between six and nine months, depending on the positions of Earth and Mars in their orbits.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
Extracting a tonne of coal now costs nearly twice as much as importing it, and domestic production no longer fully covers the country's needs.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Weighing up to a tonne, the Erumpent may be mistaken for a rhinoceros at a distance.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
In 2016, Myanmar supplied nearly 500,000 metric tonnes of tin ore and concentrate to China, accounting for more than 99 percent of such imports, Beijing's customs data shows.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
China's imports of tin ore and concentrates from Myanmar in the first half of 2026 have already surpassed 2025's total at nearly 40,000 metric tonnes, Beijing's customs data shows.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
A peatland that deep has been known to harbour more than 6,000 tonnes of carbon – roughly equivalent to the annual CO₂ emissions of 4,800 cars – per hectare.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
At the heart of the detector are 10 tonnes of extremely pure liquid xenon.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
It weighs between two and four tonnes, the female being larger than the male.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
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.
