Standard Lemma guide

tuff

adj · name · noun · 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.

  • /tʌf/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ʌf
  • homophone: tough
  • homophone: Tuff
  • CMU ARPABET: T AH1 F Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Eye dialect spelling of tough.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, pronunciation-spelling

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Impressive, amazing, awesome, cool.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Internet, ironic, often

Examples

  • bro thinks he's tuff

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

name

Meaning 3

A surname.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A light porous rock, now especially a rock composed of compacted volcanic ash varying in size from fine sand to coarse gravel.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: geography, geology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: tufa

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

hard volcanic rock composed of compacted volcanic ash

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: tufa

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: volcanic rock

History

Etymology

Eye dialect of tough.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tewh2-der. Proto-Italic *tūβosder. Oscanbor.? Latin tōfusder. Italian tufobor. French tufbor. English tuff From French tuffe, tuf, from Italian tufo, from Latin tōfus. Doublet of tufa.

Across languages

Translations

35 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: տուֆ (tuf) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Basque: toba — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Bulgarian: туф (tuf) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Catalan: tuf — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Chinese Mandarin: 凝灰岩 (nínghuīyán) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Czech: tuf — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Dutch: tufsteen — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Finnish: tuffi — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • French: tuf volcanique — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • French: tuf — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Galician: tufo — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • German: Tuff — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • German: Tuffstein — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Greek: τόφφος (tóffos) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Ancient Greek: πῶρος (pôros) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Hungarian: tufa — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Icelandic: móberg — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Irish: tuf — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Italian: tufo — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Japanese: 凝灰岩 (gyōkaigan) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Javanese: ꦮꦠꦸꦥꦸꦠꦶꦃ (watu putih) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Korean: 응회암 (eunghoeam) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Navajo: dleesh (rhyolitic tuff) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Polish: tuf wulkaniczny — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Portuguese: tofo — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Romanian: tuf — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Russian: вулкани́ческий туф (vulkaníčeskij tuf) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Serbo-Croatian: sedra — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Spanish: toba — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Spanish: tufo — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Swedish: tuff — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Turkish: tüf — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Ukrainian: вулканічний туф (vulkaničnyj tuf) — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Vietnamese: đá túp — rock consolidated from volcanic ash
  • Welsh: twff — rock consolidated from volcanic ash