tonsil

English

Etymology

Late 16th century borrowing from French tonsille or Latin tonsillae (“the tonsils in the throat”, plural).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɒn.səl/, /ˈtɒn.sɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑn.səl/
• Homophone: tonsile (General American)
• Rhymes: -ɒnsəl

Noun

tonsil (plural tonsils)

explainer video about the human palatine tonsils

1. (anatomy, immunology) Ellipsis of palatine tonsil.
2. (anatomy, immunology) Any of various small masses of lymphoid tissues.

   Hyponyms: adenoid, faucial tonsil, lingual tonsil, Luschka's tonsil, nasopharyngeal tonsil, palatine tonsil, pharyngeal tonsil, third tonsil

Derived terms

• tonsil hockey
• tonsillectomy
• tonsilotome
• tonsil stone
• tonsil tennis
• to the tonsils, up to the tonsils

 

Related terms

• tonsillar
• tonsillo-, tonsill-

Translations

palatine tonsil

• Albanian: barth (sq) m, bajame (sq)
• Arabic: لَوْزَة f (lawza)

  Hijazi Arabic: لُوَز f pl (luwaz)

• Armenian: նշիկ (hy) (nšik), նշագեղձ (hy) (nšageġj), (colloquial) գլանդ (gland)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܢܲܚܢܲܚܬܵܐ f (naḳnaḳtā), ܦܪܵܩܬܵܐ f (prāqtā) (colloquial)
• Azerbaijani: badamcıq
• Basque: amigdala
• Belarusian: мінда́ліна f (mindálina)
• Bulgarian: сли́вица (bg) f (slívica)
• Catalan: amígdala (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 扁桃腺 (bin² tou⁴ sin³)

  Mandarin: 扁桃體／扁桃体 (zh) (biǎntáotǐ), 扁桃腺 (zh) (biǎntáoxiàn)

• Czech: krční mandle (cs) f
• Danish: mandel (da) c
• Dutch: keelamandel (nl) m or f, tonsil (nl) f, amandel (nl) f
• Esperanto: tonsilo (eo)
• Estonian: mandel
• Finnish: nielurisa (fi)
• French: amygdale (fr) f
• Georgian: ნუშურა (nušura), ნუშურა ჯირკვალი (nušura ǯirḳvali), გლანდი (glandi)
• German: Mandel (de) f, Tonsille f
• Greek: αμυγδαλή (el) f (amygdalí)

  Ancient: παρίσθμιον n (parísthmion), ἀντιάς f (antiás)

• Hebrew: שָׁקֵד (he) (shakéd)
• Hindi: गलतुंडिका f (galtuṇḍikā), गलतुण्डिका f (galtuṇḍikā)
• Hungarian: mandula (hu)
• Ido: tonsilo (io)
• Italian: tonsilla (it) f
• Japanese: 扁桃腺 (ja) (へんとうせん, hentōsen), 扁桃 (ja) (へんとう, hentō)
• Kazakh: бадамша (badamşa), бадамша без (badamşa bez)
• Korean: 편도선 (ko) (pyeondoseon), 편도 (ko) (pyeondo)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ئاڵوو (allû)

  Northern Kurdish: aloq (ku)

• Latin: tonsillae f pl
• Macedonian: крајник m (krajnik)
• Malay: tonsil
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: бүйлсэн булчирхай (büjlsen bulčirxaj), хоолойны мах (xoolojny max), бүйлсэн цогц (büjlsen cogc) (China)

  Mongolian: ᠪᠦᠢᠯᠡᠰᠦᠯᠣᠩ
  ᠪᠤᠷᠴᠢᠯᠬᠠᠢ (büilesülong burčilqai), ᠬᠣᠭᠣᠯᠠᠢ ᠵᠢᠨ
  ᠮᠢᠬ᠎ᠠ (qoɣolai-ǰin mik-a), ᠪᠦᠢᠯᠡᠰᠦᠯᠣᠩ
  ᠴᠣᠭᠴᠠ (büilesülong čoɣča)

• Navajo: akááz
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mandel (no) m

  Nynorsk: mandel m

• Ottoman Turkish: بادمجك (bademcik)
• Polish: migdałek (pl) m, migdał (pl) m
• Portuguese: tonsila (pt) f, amígdala (pt) f
• Romanian: amigdală (ro) f
• Romansch: mandel m (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan), mandla f (Surmiran, Puter, Vallader)
• Russian: гла́нда (ru) f (glánda), миндалеви́дная железа́ f (mindalevídnaja železá), минда́лина (ru) f (mindálina)
• Slovak: mandľa (sk)
• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: amígdala (es) f, amígdala palatina (es) f, tonsila palatina f
• Swedish: tonsill (sv) c, halsmandel (sv) c
• Tagalog: gutil, diris
• Turkish: bademcik (tr)
• Ukrainian: мигда́лик m (myhdályk)
• Vietnamese: a-mi-đan, hạch hạnh
• Yiddish: מאַנדל n (mandl)

any of the lymphoid masses

• Bulgarian: сли́вица (bg) f (slívica)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 扁桃體／扁桃体 (zh) (biǎntáotǐ); 扁桃腺 (zh) (biǎntáoxiàn)

• Czech: mandle (cs) f
• Finnish: risa (fi)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ئاڵوو (allû)

• Russian: гла́нда (ru) f (glánda)
• Slovak: mandľa (sk)
• Spanish: amígdala (es), tonsila f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} bajame (sq)
• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} amandel (nl) m, ^{(please verify)} keelamandel (nl) m
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} tonsilla (it) f
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} krajnik (sh) m

References

• “tonsil”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “tonsil”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• Liston, Solnit, Tilson, Tolins, slot in

Malay

Etymology

Borrowed from English tonsil.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -il

Noun

tonsil (Jawi spelling تونسيل, plural tonsil-tonsil, informal 1st possessive tonsilku, 2nd possessive tonsilmu, 3rd possessive tonsilnya)

1. (anatomy, immunology) tonsil

Further reading

• “tonsil” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.