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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
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 21 Aug. 2025
And no degradation of well productivity due to simultaneous fracking.
—Ian Dexter Palmer, Forbes.com, 21 May 2025
For example, the U.K.’s approach to fracking swung four times in less than ten years: Prime Minister Cameron supported it in 2014, Prime Minister Johnson imposed a moratorium in 2019, Prime Minister Truss lifted it in 2022, and Prime Minister Sunak reimposed the ban a month later.
—Aldo Flores-Quiroga, Forbes, 19 Jan. 2025
The benefits of these investments are in the form of job creation, consumer cost savings, and new technologies like horizontal drilling – yes, the technology used for fracking developed through the DOE’s R&D program on natural fracturing.
—Kelly Fleming, Forbes.com, 11 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fracking
Cite this Entry
“Fracking.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fracking. Accessed 3 Sep. 2025.
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