Cave vs. Tunnel — What's the Difference?

A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground.

A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through the surrounding soil/earth/rock and enclosed except for entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube construction techniques rather than traditional tunnel boring methods.

A natural underground chamber in a hillside or cliff

An artificial underground passage, especially one built through a hill or under a building, road, or river

Explore caves as a sport

Short for wind tunnel

Capitulate or submit under pressure; cave in

A long, half-cylindrical enclosure used to protect plants, made of clear plastic stretched over hoops

(among children) look out!

Dig or force a passage underground or through something

A hollow or natural passage under or into the earth, especially one with an opening to the surface.

(of a particle) pass through a potential barrier.

A storage cellar, especially for wine.

An underground or underwater passage.

To dig or hollow out.

A passage through or under a barrier such as a mountain.

To cause to collapse or fall in. Often used with in

A tube-shaped structure.

To fall in; collapse. Often used with in

To make a tunnel through or under

To give up all opposition; yield. Often used with in

To produce, shape, or dig in the form of a tunnel

To explore caves.

To make a tunnel.

A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.

An underground or underwater passage.

A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.

A passage through or under some obstacle.

A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.

A hole in the ground made by an animal, a burrow.

A place of retreat, such as a man cave.

A wrapper for a protocol that cannot otherwise be used because it is unsupported, blocked, or insecure.

(caving) A naturally-occurring cavity in bedrock which is large enough to be entered by an adult.

A vessel with a broad mouth at one end, a pipe or tube at the other, for conveying liquor, fluids, etc., into casks, bottles, or other vessels; a funnel.

(nuclear physics) A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.

The opening of a chimney for the passage of smoke; a flue.

Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.

(mining) A level passage driven across the measures, or at right angles to veins which it is desired to reach; distinguished from the drift, or gangway, which is led along the vein when reached by the tunnel.

(mining) A collapse or cave-in.

(figurative) Anything that resembles a tunnel.

The vagina.

(transitive) To make a tunnel through or under something; to burrow.

A group that breaks from a larger political party or faction on a particular issue.

(intransitive) To dig a tunnel.

(obsolete) Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.

To transmit something through a tunnel (wrapper for insecure or unsupported protocol).

(programming) A code cave.

To insert a catheter into a vein to allow long-term use.

To surrender.

(physics) To undergo the quantum-mechanical phenomenon where a particle penetrates through a barrier that it classically cannot surmount.

To collapse.

A vessel with a broad mouth at one end, and a pipe or tube at the other, for conveying liquor, fluids, etc., into casks, bottles, or other vessels; a funnel.

To hollow out or undermine.

The opening of a chimney for the passage of smoke; a flue; a funnel.

To engage in the recreational exploration of caves.

An artificial passage or archway for conducting canals, roads, or railroads under elevated ground, for the formation of roads under rivers or canals, and the construction of sewers, drains, and the like.

(mining) In room-and-pillar mining, to extract a deposit of rock by breaking down a pillar which had been holding it in place.

A level passage driven across the measures, or at right angles to veins which it is desired to reach; - distinguished from the drift, or gangway, which is led along the vein when reached by the tunnel.

To work over tailings to dress small pieces of marketable ore.

To form into a tunnel, or funnel, or to form like a tunnel; as, to tunnel fibrous plants into nests.

(obsolete) To dwell in a cave.

To catch in a tunnel net.

Look out!; beware!

To make an opening, or a passageway, through or under; as, to tunnel a mountain; to tunnel a river.

A hollow place in the earth, either natural or artificial; a subterraneous cavity; a cavern; a den.

To make a tunnel; as, to tunnel under a river.

Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.

A passageway through or under something, usually underground (especially one for trains or cars);

A coalition or group of seceders from a political party, as from the Liberal party in England in 1866. See Adullam, Cave of, in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.

A hole in the ground made by an animal for shelter

To make hollow; to scoop out.

Move through by or as by digging;

To dwell in a cave.

Force a way through

To fall in or down; as, the sand bank caved. Hence (Slang), to retreat from a position; to give way; to yield in a disputed matter.

An underground enclosure with access from the surface of the ground or from the sea

Hollow out as if making a cave or opening;

Explore natural caves