Other forms: sprockets
A sprocket is a toothed wheel that a chain grips. A rear sprocket, worn sprockets, change the sprocket.
It is not a gear, because it drives a chain rather than meshing with another wheel, and the tooth shape is cut to match the chain pitch exactly. Changing the size of one alters how hard the pedals are to push, which is the whole idea behind gearing.
1nounsprocketA toothed wheel that a chain grips.
“The bicycle chain kept slipping off the rear sprocket.”
sprocket is a wheel.
First recorded in the sixteenth century, of unknown origin, possibly related to a word for a spur or spoke.
Built from
unknown. First attested in the 16th century. Perhaps related to Italian rocchetto (“spool”), spoletta (“spool”), sprone (“spur”), or English spoke#Noun, spike, spur.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA