kerplunk

English

WOTD – 17 September 2023

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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈplʌŋk/, enPR: kə-plŭngkʹ

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kə(ɹ)ˈplʌŋk/, enPR: kər-plŭngkʹ
• Rhymes: -ʌŋk
• Hyphenation: ker‧plunk

Noun

kerplunk (plural kerplunks)

1. (informal) A sound of someone or something falling and landing heavily.

   Synonyms: kerchunk, plunk, thud

   Coordinate term: splosh

   • 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.

2. (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

• Finnish: shokkipettymys
• Macedonian: разочару́вање n (razočarúvanje)

Interjection

kerplunk

1. Used to indicate a thudding sound.

   Coordinate term: kersplosh

   • 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

• Finnish: tumps, tumpsis
• French: patatras (fr)
• German: krach (de), bum
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: bardaf (wa)

Verb

kerplunk (third-person singular simple present kerplunks, present participle kerplunking, simple past and past participle kerplunked)

1. (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

Further reading

• Kerplunk (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia