A tuk-tuk is a small open taxi with three wheels — a motorbike front, a bench seat behind, a roof, no doors. You climb in from the side, the driver pulls away with a rattle, and you feel every bump. They are famous in Thailand, which is where the English word comes from, but you will find the same vehicle all across South and Southeast Asia and in parts of Africa and South America, under different local names — in India it is usually an auto-rickshaw or just an auto. English speakers, especially tourists, tend to call any of them a tuk-tuk. The word is written several ways: tuk-tuk, tuk tuk, tuktuk. The hyphen is the most usual in British writing. The plural is tuk-tuks. For tourists it is part of the fun of a trip, and it turns up in holiday photos and travel writing far more than in serious news. Two things go with the word almost every time: the noise, because that is where the name comes from, and the price, because you normally agree the fare before you get in rather than paying a meter. Recently the word has travelled again — some European cities now run small electric tuk-tuks for short city tours, which are quiet and rather miss the point of the name.