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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
Sarah Bahari, Dallas Morning News, 5 Jan. 2026
Today, as a result of the shale-oil revolution—fracking—the United States is the world’s largest oil producer, even larger than Saudi Arabia, and a net exporter of petroleum.
—John Cassidy, New Yorker, 4 Jan. 2026
The White House wanted to use the grants that Wright, a former Colorado fracking executive, was canceling as a negotiating tactic with Congress and the states.
—Mabinty Quarshie, The Washington Examiner, 28 Dec. 2025
Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty Images An American startup, Deep Isolation Nuclear, is combining the underground burial concept with oil-and-gas fracking techniques.
—Bob Woods, CNBC, 9 Nov. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Fracking.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fracking. Accessed 10 Jan. 2026.
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