spelunker

/spəˈlʌŋkər/

Other forms: spelunkers

A spelunker is an explorer of caves. If you hope to one day be a spelunker, you probably have a love of dark, damp spaces and headlamps.

This word may seem to have German written all over it but it's actually Latinate: from spelunk, meaning "cave." The word designates an explorer of caves and is used mostly in American English, in preference to the more technical and refined speleologist. You can describe what a spelunker does as spelunking, or if you want to make sure you're understood, you can call it caving, or in the United Kingdom and Ireland, potholing.

Definitions of spelunker

1. noun

   a person who explores caves
   synonyms: potholer, spelaeologist, speleologist

   type of:

   adventurer, explorer

   someone who travels into little known regions (especially for some scientific purpose)