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kerplunk. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
kerplunk, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
kerplunk in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
kerplunk you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From ker- (prefix forming onomatopoeias imitating the effect or sound of a heavy object falling) + plunk (“dull thud of something landing on a surface”).[1][2]
Pronunciation
Noun
kerplunk (plural kerplunks)
- (informal) A sound of someone or something falling and landing heavily; a thud.
- Synonym: plunk
2005, Michelle Tea, chapter 15, in Rose of No Man’s Land , 1st Harvest edition, Orlando, Fla., Austin, Tex.: Harcourt, published 2007, →ISBN, page 125:If my life were a Saturday-morning cartoon, you would have heard a loud kerplunk as my stomach dropped. My poor starving stomach. It was under such stress already, and now this.
- (figuratively, US, slang, dated) A disappointment which comes as a surprise.
Translations
sound of someone or something falling and landing heavily
— see thud
(slang) disappointment which comes as a surprise
Interjection
kerplunk
- Used to indicate a thudding sound.
1986 November, Eva Bunting, chapter 7, in Sixth-grade Sleepover (An Apple Paperback), New York, N.Y.: Scholastic, →ISBN, page 41:We flipped to see who'd go first and I won, which meant Claudia had to dial. I called the number out loud for her, and inside me my heart was suddenly going "kerplunk, kerplunk, kerplunk," heavy as an elephant's feet.
Translations
used to indicate a thudding sound
Verb
kerplunk (third-person singular simple present kerplunks, present participle kerplunking, simple past and past participle kerplunked)
- (intransitive, informal) To make the sound of falling and landing heavily; to thud.
Translations
to make the sound of falling and landing heavily
— see thud
References
Further reading