bunker

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• Received-Pronunciation: /ˈbʌŋ.kə/
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• Northern-England: /ˈbʊŋ.kə/
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• Canada, General-American: /ˈbʌŋ.kɚ/
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• Texas: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• Australian, New-Zealand: /ˈbɐŋ.kə/
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• Queensland Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• rhymes with -ʌŋkə(ɹ)
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• CMU ARPABET: B AH1 NG K ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 7.1 (“box or chest, the lid of which serves as a seat”), from Scots bunker (“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”), from Early Scots bunker, bunkur, bonker (“a chest or box, often serving as a seat”), probably from Old Norse bunki (“a heap”) (probably whence bunk (“sleeping berth in a ship, train, etc.”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkô (“a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bhenǵh- (“thick”) or *bheg- (“to billow, swell; to arch, bend, curve (?)”). Compare Middle Low German bunge (“drum, container”), Middle High German bunge (“drum”). Sense 1 (“hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks”) was derived from German Bunker during World War II, which was itself from bunker (“large bin or container for storing coal”) (sense 5). The verb is derived from the noun.

From bunk (“to fail to attend school or work without permission, to play truant”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns indicating a person or thing that does an action).

Clipping of mossbunker, a variant of mossbanker, from Dutch marsbanker (“common scad or Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus)”), from Marsdiep (“deep tide-race between Den Helder and Texel in the Netherlands”) + bank (“shallow part of the sea near a coast”) + -er (suffix forming nouns denoting male inhabitants of a place).

91 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Arabic: مَخْبَأ (maḵbaʔ) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Arabic: قَبْو (qabw) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Armenian: բունկեր (bunker) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Belarusian: бу́нкер (búnkjer) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Bulgarian: бу́нкер (búnker) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Catalan: búnquer — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Chinese Mandarin: 地堡 (dìbǎo) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Chinese Mandarin: 掩體 /掩体 (yǎntǐ) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Czech: bunkr — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Danish: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Dutch: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Esperanto: bunkro — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Finnish: bunkkeri — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Finnish: pommisuoja — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• French: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Galician: búnker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Georgian: ბუნკერი (bunḳeri) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• German: Bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• German: Schutzkeller — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Greek: οχυρό (ochyró) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Greek: καταφύγιο (katafýgio) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Hungarian: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Italian: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Japanese: バンカー (bankā) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Japanese: 掩蔽壕 (enpeigō) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Japanese: 掩体壕 (entaigō) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Japanese: トーチカ (tōchika) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Khmer: លេណដ្ឋាន (leindthaan) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Khmer: ត្រង់សេ (trɑngsee) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Khmer: បុងគ័រ (bongkɔə) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Korean: 엄폐호 (eompyeho) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Korean: 벙커 (beongkeo) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Korean: 토치카 (tochika) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Korean: 엄체호 (eomcheho) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Macedonian: бункер (bunker) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Mongolian: хоргодох байр (xorgodox bajr) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Norwegian Bokmål: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Norwegian Nynorsk: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Persian: پناهگاه (panâhgâh) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Polish: bunkier — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Polish: schron — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Portuguese: casamata — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Romanian: buncăr — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Russian: бу́нкер (búnker) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Serbo-Croatian: бу̀нкер — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Serbo-Croatian: bùnker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Slovak: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Slovene: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Lower Sorbian: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Upper Sorbian: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Spanish: búnker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Swedish: bunker — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Thai: หลุมหลบภัย — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Tibetan: འཇིང་རག ('jing rag) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Ukrainian: бу́нкер (búnker) — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Vietnamese: boongke — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Vietnamese: boong-ke — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Vietnamese: hầm — hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks
• Dutch: bunker — container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship’s engine
• Finnish: bunkkeri — container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship’s engine
• Greek: καυσιμαποθήκη (kafsimapothíki) — container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship’s engine
• Norwegian Bokmål: bunker — container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship’s engine
• Norwegian Nynorsk: bunker — container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship’s engine
• Serbo-Croatian: бу̀нкер — container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship’s engine
• Serbo-Croatian: bùnker — container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship’s engine
• Swedish: bunker — container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship’s engine
• Bulgarian: пясъчник (pjasǎčnik) — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Dutch: bunker — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Finnish: bunkkeri — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Finnish: hiekkaeste — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• German: Bunker — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Italian: bunker — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Japanese: バンカー (bankā) — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Korean: 벙커 (beongkeo) — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Māori: rua kirikiri — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Māori: mārua onepū — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Norwegian Bokmål: bunker — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Norwegian Nynorsk: bunker — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Russian: песчаная зона (pesčanaja zona) — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Spanish: bunker — hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow
• Bulgarian: бу́нкер (búnker) — large bin or container for storing coal
• Catalan: carbonera — large bin or container for storing coal
• Greek: καυσιμαποθήκη (kafsimapothíki) — large bin or container for storing coal
• Italian: bunker — large bin or container for storing coal
• Swedish: bunker — large bin or container for storing coal
• Bulgarian: товаря въглища (tovarja vǎglišta) — to load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine
• Finnish: bunkrata — to load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine
• German: bunkern — to load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine
• Swedish: bunkra — to load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine
• Bulgarian: попадам в пясъчника (popadam v pjasǎčnika) — to hit (a golf ball) into a bunker; to place (a golfer) in the position of having a golf ball in a bunker
• German: bunkern — of a vessel: to take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine