drilling

noun

Simple meaning

Drilling a hole in the earth in the hope of producing petroleum.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

driling

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdɹɪlɪŋ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

The act of drilling a hole in the earth in the hope of producing petroleum
The act or process of drilling.
A heavy, twilled fabric of linen or cotton; drill.
A long firearm with three barrels (typically a mix of shotgun and rifle barrels).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: Neutral / general English

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

drilling fluiddrilling muddrilling rigoil drillingsea drillingdrilling operationsdrilling projectdrilling program

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

drillverbBase word
Make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

drilling bitnounCompound term
A bit used in drilling for oil.
drilling fluidnounCompound term
A mixture of clays and chemicals and water.
drilling mudnounCompound term
A mixture of clays and chemicals and water.
drilling pipenounCompound term
A series of tubes (joined by screwed collars) that connect a drilling platform to the drilling bit.
drilling platformnounCompound term
Drilling rig consisting of an offshore platform (floating or fixed to the sea bed) from which many oil wells can be bored radially.
drilling rignounCompound term
Rig used in drilling for oil or gas.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

drill rignounRelated term
Rig used in drilling for oil or gas.
drill bitnounRelated term
A bit used in drilling for oil.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: drilling a hole in the earth in the hope of producing petroleum

oil production

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.