ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

countersink.

A conical recess, typically machined at the mouth of a hole to admit a screw (with a matching taper) so that the screw sits flush with a surface.

11 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun

A conical recess, typically machined at the mouth of a hole to admit a screw (with a matching taper) so that the screw sits flush with a surface.
The cutter used to cut such a recess. (Also used, at less depth, for edge-breaking/deburring.)

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Proto-Indo-European *-teros Proto-Italic *-teros Proto-Italic *komterosder. Proto-Italic *komterād Latin contrāder. Old French contre- Anglo-Norman countre-bor. Middle English counter- English counter- English sink English countersink From counter- + sink.

verb

To create such a conical recess.
transitive
to countersink a hole for a screw
To cause to sink even with or below the surface.
ambitransitive
to countersink a screw or bolt into woodwork

Where this word comes from

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.