Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sinkhole |
SinkholeNoun1. A depression in the ground communicating with a subterranean passage (especially in limestone) and formed by solution or by collapse of a cavern roof. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definitions |
Geography | Circular depression in a karst area with a subterranean drainage whose size measured in metres or tens of metres; commonly funnel-shaped. Source: European Union. (references) |
Geological | A depression in the surface commonly found in in karst landscapes. Sinkholes often form where limestone or some other soluble rock is partially dissolved by groundwater, then collapses to form a depression. Sinkholes are often "bowl-shaped" and can be a few to many hundreds of meters in diameter. Also known as dolines. (references) |
Hydrologic | A depression in the Earth's surface caused by dissolving of underlying limestone, salt, or gypsum. Drainage is provided through underground channels that may be enlarged by the collapse of a cavern roof. (references) |
Mining | A circular depression in a karst area. Its drainage is subterranean, its size is measured in meters or tens of meters, and it is commonly funnel shaped. Syn:doline; sink; leach hole. Partial syn: collapse sink. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In physical geography, a sinkhole is a feature of landscapes based on limestone bedrock, formed by the collapse of cave roofs. The result is a depression in the surface topography. This may range anywhere from a small, gentle, earth-lined depression to a large, cliff-lined chasm. Most often, there is a small area of rock exposure near or at the bottom of a sinkhole, and a patent opening into the cave below may or may not be visible. In the case of exceptionally large sinkholes, such as Cedar Sink at Mammoth Cave National Park, there may actually be a stream or river flowing into the bottom of the sink from one side and out the other side.
Sinkholes often form in low areas where they form drainage outlets for a surface drainage basin. They may also form in high and dry locations.
Sinkholes are usually but not always linked with a karst landscape. Karst represents a set of surface features that are characteristic of limestone under the soil. In many such regions, there may be hundreds or even thousands of sinkholes in a small area so that the earth as seen from the air looks pock-marked. Often, in such areas, there are few or no flowing streams on the surface because the drainage is all sub-surface.
Sinkholes have for centuries been used as disposal sites for solid and liquid wastes. An unfortunate consequence has been terrible, even toxic, pollution of underground water resources which has had serious health implications in such areas.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sinkhole."
Synonym: SinkholeSynonym: swallow hole (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Sinkhole |
| Specialty definitions using "sinkhole": disappearing stream, doline ♦ sinkhole lake, sinkhole pond, SINKS. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | A sinkhole in the Karst topography of northeast Iowa funnels runoff waters directly into an underground aquifer. The conservation buffer surrounding the sinkhole improves water quality by filtering the water from croplands. Credit: Tim McCabe. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Sinkhole" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Sinkhole" is used about 6 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 6 | 143,867 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "sinkhole": collapse sinkhole ♦ sinkhole lake ♦ sinkhole pond ♦ solution sinkhole. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
sinkhole | 180 | sinkhole claim | 3 |
florida sinkhole | 100 | 70 i sinkhole vail | 3 |
70 i sinkhole | 27 | sinkhole detection | 3 |
colorado sinkhole | 13 | sinkhole remediation | 3 |
sinkhole vail | 11 | sinkhole damage | 2 |
devil sinkhole | 8 | claim florida sinkhole | 2 |
70 colorado i sinkhole | 5 | colorado sinkhole vail | 2 |
70 interstate sinkhole | 5 | ordinance sinkhole | 2 |
sinkhole picture | 5 | colorado in sinkhole | 2 |
sinkhole repair | 5 | almeda sinkhole | 2 |
sinkhole investigation | 4 | dolomite sinkhole | 2 |
i70 sinkhole | 4 | winter park sinkhole | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "sinkhole"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | jordfaldshul (collapse sinkhole, dolina, doline, failure, leach hole, rock failure, shakehole, sink, solution sinkhole, sotch), doline (dolina, doline, leach hole, shakehole, sink, sotch). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | doline (collapse sinkhole, dolina, doline, leach hole, shakehole, sink, solution sinkhole, sotch). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | karstivajoama (collapse sinkhole, doline, sink, solution sinkhole), doliini (collapse sinkhole, dolina, doline, leach hole, shakehole, sink, solution sinkhole, sotch). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | souillard, puisard (collapse sinkhole, sink, solution sinkhole), effondrement (collapse sinkhole, sink, sinking, solution sinkhole), doline (sink). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Dreckloch. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | καρστικό φρέαρ (collapse sinkhole, doline, sink, solution sinkhole), καταβόθρα (cesspool, septic tank), δολίνη (collapse sinkhole, dolina, doline, leach hole, shakehole, sink, solution sinkhole, sotch). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | víznyelő, pöcegödör (cesspit, cesspool), lefolyólyuk. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | sprofondamento (collapse, collapse sinkhole, doline, sink, sinking, solution sinkhole), dolina (collapse sinkhole, dolina, doline, funnel, leach hole, shakehole, sink, solution sinkhole, sotch), cavit di sprofondamento (collapse sinkhole, doline, sink, solution sinkhole). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | inkholesay dolina (collapse sinkhole, dolina, doline, leach hole, shakehole, sink, solution sinkhole, sotch). (various references) карстовая воронка. (various references) sumidero (drain, sink, sump), pozo negro (cesspit), dolina (collapse sinkhole, doline, sink, solution sinkhole). (various references) dolin (dolina, doline, leach hole, shakehole, sink, sotch). (various references) водостічний колодязь. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sinkhole": sinkholes. (additional references) | |
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"Sinkhole" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Zakhele. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "sinkhole" (pronounced si"ngkhō'l) |
| 3 | -h ō' l | buttonhole, cubbyhole, foxhole, keyhole, loophole, manhole, pigeonhole, pinhole, posthole, pothole. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-h-i-k-l-n-o-s" | |
-1 letter: honkies, sonlike. | |
-2 letters: eikons, eloins, enokis, helios, holies, honkie, inkles, insole, isohel, kelson, koines, lesion, likens, oleins, silken. | |
-3 letters: eikon, eloin, enoki, enols, eosin, heils, helio, helos, hikes, hoise, hokes, holes, holks, hones, honks, hosel, hosen, ikons, inkle, kenos, kilns, kilos, kines, kinos, knish, koels, kohls, koine, lenis, lenos, liens, liken, likes, lines. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-h-i-k-l-n-o-s" | |
+1 letter: sinkholes. | |
+3 letters: folkishness, lymphokines. | |
+4 letters: doublethinks, schnorkeling. | |
+5 letters: folkishnesses, nonshrinkable, unlikelihoods. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)53 69 6E 6B 68 6F 6C 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)... .. -. -.- .... --- .-.. . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010011 01101001 01101110 01101011 01101000 01101111 01101100 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)S i n k h o l e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0053 0069 006E 006B 0068 006F 006C 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5375807774817871 |
| Language | Coverage | Language Translations |
Danish | ordbog, deskriptordefinition, oversættelse | tanskalainen, danois, dänisch, δανικόσ, δανόσ, dán, danese, dinamarquês, датский, danés, dansk, датський, датська мова |
Dutch | woordenboek, definitie, translatie | hollandsk, hollantilainen, néerlandais, holländisch, ολλανδικόσ, ολλανδόσ, holland, olandese, holandês, голландский, holandés, holländsk, голландська мова, голландський |
Finnish | määritelmä, translaatio, taajuusmuutos | suomi, suomalainen, finnois, Finlandaise, finlandais, finnisch, φινλανδικόσ, finn, finlandese, finlandês, finês, финский, finlandés, finés, finsk, фінська мова, фінський |
French | dictionnaire, définition, traduction | ranskalainen, français, französisch, γαλλικόσ, γαλλική γλώσσα, γαλλίδα, γάλλοσ, francia, francese, francês, французский, francés, fransk, franska, французька мова, французький |
German | Übersetzung, Wörterbuch, Definition | tysker, Duitse, saksalainen, allemand, "ερμανός, német, tedesco, alemão, немецкий, alemán, tysk, німкеня, німецький, німець |
Greek | λεξικό, ορισμός, μετάφραση | græker, kreikkalainen, grec, grieche, ελληνικόσ, 'Ελληνας, görög, greco, grego, греческий, грек, griego, grek, грецький, гречанка, грецька мова |
Hungarian | szótár, meghatározás, definíció, fordítás | ungarer, Hongaarse, unkarilainen, hongrois, Ungar, Ούγγρος, magyar, ungherese, венгр, венгерский, húngaro, ungrare, угорська мова, угорський, угорка, угорець |
Italian | dizionario, definizione, traduzione | italiener, italialainen, italien, italienisch, Ιταλός, olasz, italiano, итальянский язык, итальянец, итальянский, italiensk, italienska, italienare, італі"ць, італійська мова, італійський, італійка |
Portuguese | dicionário, definição, tradução | portugiser, portugalilainen, portugais, portugiesisch, πορτογάλοσ, ορτογάλος, portugál, portoghese, português, португальский, portugués, portugis, португальський, португальська мова, португалець |
Russian | словарь, определение, трансляция, сдвиг, перевод, перемещение | russer, venäläinen, Russe, russisch, Ρώσος, orosz, russo, русский, ruso, ryss, росіянка, росіянин, російська мова, російський |
Spanish | diccionario, definición, traducción | Spaans, espanjalainen, espagnol, spanisch, ισπανικά, ισπανικόσ, ισπανοί, spanyol, spagnolo, espanhol, испанский, español, spanska språk, spansk, іспанський, іспанська мова |
Swedish | ordbok, lexikon, översättning | Zweeds, ruotsalainen, suédois, schwedisch, σουηδικόσ, σουηδικά, svéd, svedese, шведский, sueco, svensk, шведська мова, шведський |
Ukrainian | словник, довідник, чіткість, тлумачення, виразність, визначення, дефініція, ясність, чітка чутність, процес перекладу, переклад, пояснення, переміщення | Oekraïens, ukrainalainen, ukrainien, ukrainisch, ukrainerin, Ukrainer, ουκρανικόσ, Ουκρανός, ουκρανόσ, ukrán, ucraino, ucraniano, украинский язык, украинский, украинец украинский, ucranio, ukrainare, український, українець |
English | Dictionary, Definition, Translation | englantia, englantilainen, anglais, englisch, εγγλέζοσ, αγγλικόσ, angol, inglese, inglês, английский, inglés, engelsk, англійський, англійці, англійська мова |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
