Did you know?

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 key issue facing the oil industry is underinvestment after the fracking boom collapsed. — Tim Fernholz, Quartz, 22 Apr. 2022 Trump has tried to woo the region with promises of coal and steel jobs, and insisted but that Biden would eliminate fracking, but Dahlkemper says that message doesn't fly in Erie County. — Ben Kamisar, NBC news, 20 Oct. 2020 Much of North Dakota’s oil and gas is obtained through fracking, a controversial extraction technique that enabled the U.S. to become the world’s biggest producer in 2018. — Christa Case Bryant, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Apr. 2022 Environmentally conscious youth and supporters of eliminating fracking and extraction in the area completely are also raising awareness. — Arlyssa D.becenti, The Arizona Republic, 2 Apr. 2022 Halliburton, the world’s biggest provider of fracking, is alone among the three major oilfield-service providers to publicly declare a pullout from one of the world’s largest crude producers. — Bloomberg.com, 19 Mar. 2022 Last year, a state investigation determined that state regulatory agencies failed to protect residents in the region from the impacts of fracking — including severe health consequences and water contamination. — Hannah Rappleye, NBC News, 14 Nov. 2021 Outside a supermarket in Kirkham, not far from the Lancashire fracking site, shoppers expressed concern about the looming rise in energy bills. — New York Times, 30 Mar. 2022 After a series of busts and near-death experiences, American fracking firms now manage their cash flow so neurotically that some executives have sworn not to drill more even if oil reaches $150 a barrel, an all-time high. — Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2022 See More

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.