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sinkhole

US/ˈsɪŋkˌhoʊl/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,905 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: sinkholes

A sinkhole is a hole where the ground has collapsed into a hollow. A sudden sinkhole, the sinkhole swallowed a car, sinkholes in the road.

They form where water dissolves rock underground, usually limestone, and the surface holds until it does not — which is why they appear without warning. Leaking pipes and old mine workings cause the ones that open in streets.

Peter1936F · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of sinkhole

  1. 1nounsinkholeA hole where the ground has collapsed into a hollow.B2+

    “A huge sinkhole opened up in the car park and swallowed three cars.”

sinkhole is a hole.

Where it comes from

Sink plus hole, in Middle English, from the water sinking away into the ground.

  1. Middle English

    sinkehole

  2. English, today

    sinkhole

From Middle English sinkehole, sinkeholl, equivalent to sink + hole.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Nature & Weather

Practise this word

sinkhole in the wild

  • A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer.

    Sinkhole

  • The sinkhole is 1,429 m deep and 3,118 m long.

    Egma Sinkhole

  • The facility encloses a prehistoric sinkhole that formed and was slowly filled with sediments during the Pleistocene era.

    The Mammoth Site

  • The sinkhole was descended for the first time in 1974 and more thoroughly explored in 1976.

    Sima Humboldt

  • Only 700 metres from the rim of Sima Humboldt there is another enormous sinkhole, Sima Martel.

    Sima Humboldt

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.