Standard Lemma guide

ENT

noun · verb · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ɛnt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛnt
  • CMU ARPABET: EH1 N T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Initialism of ear, nose and throat.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable

Topics: medicine, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

An otorhinolaryngologist; an ear, nose and throat doctor.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: medicine, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A large, fictional, humanoid, walking tree in works by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: fantasy

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Alternative letter-case form of ent.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

verb

Meaning 5

To pour, especially of rain.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Cornwall

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English ent (“giant”), from Proto-West Germanic *anti; introduced by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, 1954–55, as Ent. Compare Middle English *ent, eont (“giant”), inherited from the Old English word, but which apparently did not survive through the Middle English period into Modern times. Apparently survived in some German dialects as Enz (“giant”), also in composite forms. Compare ettin.

Possibly from empty, through assimilation of /m/ to the following /t/.

Across languages

Translations

27 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Belarusian: ЛОР (LOR) — ear, nose and throat
  • Bulgarian: УНГ (UNG) — ear, nose and throat
  • Czech: ORL — ear, nose and throat
  • Danish: ØNH — ear, nose and throat
  • Finnish: KNK — ear, nose and throat
  • French: ORL — ear, nose and throat
  • Galician: ORL — ear, nose and throat
  • German: HNO — ear, nose and throat
  • Greek: ΩΡΛ (ORL) — ear, nose and throat
  • Hungarian: fül-orr-gége — ear, nose and throat
  • Indonesian: THT — ear, nose and throat
  • Italian: ORL — ear, nose and throat
  • Norwegian Bokmål: ØNH — ear, nose and throat
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: ØNH — ear, nose and throat
  • Russian: ЛОР (LOR) — ear, nose and throat
  • Spanish: ORL — ear, nose and throat
  • Swedish: ÖNH — ear, nose and throat
  • Turkish: KBB — ear, nose and throat
  • Ukrainian: ЛОР (LOR) — ear, nose and throat
  • Bengali: এণ্ট (enṭo) — a fictional large talking tree
  • Czech: ent — a fictional large talking tree
  • Finnish: entti — a fictional large talking tree
  • German: Ent — a fictional large talking tree
  • Marathi: एन्ट (enṭa) — a fictional large talking tree
  • Russian: энт (ent) — a fictional large talking tree
  • Serbo-Croatian: ент — a fictional large talking tree
  • Serbo-Croatian: ent — a fictional large talking tree