Showing results for "mining"

• present participle of mine.

mining

American  

[mahy-ning] / ˈmaɪ nɪŋ /

noun

minings plural

1. the act, process, or industry of extracting ores, coal, etc., from mines.

2. the laying of explosive mines.

3. Digital Technology. the act or process by which cryptocurrency transactions, especially bitcoin, are verified and new cryptocurrency is generated: computer networks are used to solve sets of mathematical problems, that, when solved, yield a unit of that currency.

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mining British  

/ ˈmaɪnɪŋ /

noun

1. the act, process, or industry of extracting coal, ores, etc, from the earth

2. military the process of laying mines

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• minings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mining

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English: “undermining (walls in an attack)”; mine ² + -ing ¹

Explanation

The process of removing something valuable from underground is mining. In order for coal to be used as fuel, it has to first be extracted from sedimentary rock through mining. Mining is used to extract minerals, gemstones, oil, gas, and any other materials that are useful or valuable enough to make the process worthwhile. Digging up substances from the earth is always tedious and sometimes dangerous. Coal mining is notoriously unhealthy for its workers, and surface mining involves blasting rocks with explosives to extract precious metals. You can think of mining as a kind of underground tunneling, from the verb mine, "to dig a tunnel."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mining minings

A resident evacuated from his street following ground movement linked to historical mining work says he expects his family will never return to their home.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

The scrupulously staged and rehearsed repertory at the Joyce, with Elisa Clark assisting as rehearsal director, holds bright promise for future retrospective efforts mining the Mark Morris Dance Group’s rich repertory.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

Among them were a former rural mayor, an ex-police commander, a bar owner, a rancher, a fireman and various entrepreneurs associated with mining and construction, industries heavily subject to extortion demands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026

They’re not surveilling their readers or mining their data.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

But as Roz swam closer, the details sharpened into the perfect lines and angles of the mining station.

From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown

On Capitol Hill, the Reagan Administration was engaged in some belated fence mending with Congress following the furor raised three weeks ago by legislators who charged that they had been inadequately briefed on the minings.

From Time Magazine Archive

Meantime a cough, the herald of consumption, tormented him, and "the slow minings of the hectic fire" within began to manifest themselves more visibly in days and nights of feverish excitement.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 477, February 19, 1831 by Various

Provided the differences amount not to an insolent opposition of Laws, and Government, or Religion established, as to the essentials of them, such motions and minings are intolerable.

From Eikon Basilike The Pourtracture of His Sacred Majestie, in His Solitudes and Sufferings by Charles I, King of England

And the open goings-forth of it, still more the secret minings and mole-courses of it, were into all places.

From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 05 by Carlyle, Thomas

Nothing would be done on either side but stick-in-the-mud warfare and those trench-raids and minings which had no object except "to keep up the spirit of the men."

From Now It Can Be Told by Gibbs, Philip

Related Words

• drilling