tons
Britishplural noun
adverb
Explanation
If you have tons of something, you have an enormous amount of it, like when you buy tons of ice cream for your birthday party. The informal tons is perfect for exaggerating, making a large quantity sound even bigger. You might say, "I have tons of friends at my new school" or "Your library is tiny — my library has tons more books!" It's a way to play up size or amount while still being vague. Tons comes from ton, which is often used colloquially ("I ate a ton of pasta"), but is also a precise unit for measuring weight.
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.
The companies are “basically saying we’re going to keep charging scarcity pricing in 2032, when presumably there will be tons of competition and we’ve quadrupled our capacity.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
We have our own paddleboards, but there are tons of shops where you can rent boards on PCH.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
The bloc had 36 million tons of diesel in emergency stocks as of the end of June, equivalent to around two months of EU consumption, according to Eurostat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
The 18 large leaks Buckley mentioned fixing account for more than 142,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide prevented from entering the atmosphere, she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
The explosion obliterated a coral island in Bikini Atoll, sucking millions of tons of coral dust into the sky.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
