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Hydraulic fracturing is a technique in which a liquid is injected under high pressure into a well in order to create tiny fissures in the rock deep beneath the earth which then allow gas and oil to flow into the well. The term "hydraulic fracturing" is first known to have appeared in print in a 1948 issue of Oil & Gas Journal. A 1953 issue of the same journal also contains the earliest known print use of "fracking." The word fracking (sometimes spelled fraccing or fracing, particularly by those in the gas and oil industries) was created by shortening "fracturing." The addition of the "k" brings the word into conformity with the inflected forms of similar English words ending in a vowel plus "c," such as shellacking, panicking, and frolicking.

Examples of fracking in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The industry's pivot, fueled in part by cheap natural gas unlocked by the fracking boom, has led to a proliferation of plastics manufacturing. — Hannah Rappleye, NBC News, 14 Nov. 2021 The industry says leaks of methane, the main component of natural gas, have decreased even as natural gas production has gone up as a result of the ongoing fracking boom. — BostonGlobe.com, 2 Nov. 2021 The industry says leaks of methane, the main component of natural gas, have decreased even as natural gas production has gone up as a result of the ongoing fracking boom. — Matthew Daly, Anchorage Daily News, 2 Nov. 2021 The industry says leaks of methane, the main component of natural gas, have decreased even as natural gas production has gone up as a result of the ongoing fracking boom. — Matthew Daly, ajc, 2 Nov. 2021 The industry says leaks of methane, the main component of natural gas, have decreased even as natural gas production has gone up as a result of the ongoing fracking boom. — Matthew Daly, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Nov. 2021 In Texas, the birthplace of the modern fracking industry, companies for years have used the bounty of the boom to fuel natural-gas peaker plants, which could earn large sums in the state’s wholesale power market when demand spiked. — WSJ, 16 May 2021 But the fracking industry depends on fuel not being cheap, since such unconventional drilling methods are expensive. — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 16 Mar. 2021 Because the Saudis know that higher prices are better for the U.S. fracking industry, a major competitor which has been pressured for years by low prices. — Ken Roberts, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fracking.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.