socket

American  

[sok-it] / ˈsɒk ɪt /

noun

• sockets
  plural

1. a hollow part or piece for receiving and holding some part or thing.

2. Electricity.

   1. a device intended to hold an electric light bulb mechanically and connect it electrically to circuit wires.

   2. Also called wall socket.  a socket placed in a wall to receive a plug that makes an electrical connection with supply wiring.

3. Anatomy.

   1. a hollow in one part that receives another part.

      the socket of the eye.

   2. the concavity of a joint.

      the socket of the hip.

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verb (used with object)

• sockets,
  present (3rd person singular)
• socketed,
  past participle,  past
• socketing
  present participle

1. to place in or fit with a socket.

socket British  

/ ˈsɒkɪt /

noun

1. a device into which an electric plug can be inserted in order to make a connection in a circuit

2. US and Canadian name: outlet.  Informal Brit names: point.   plug.  such a device mounted on a wall and connected to the electricity supply

3. a part with an opening or hollow into which some other part, such as a pipe, probe, etc, can be fitted

4. a spanner head having a recess suitable to be fitted over the head of a bolt and a keyway into which a wrench can be fitted

5. anatomy

   1. a bony hollow into which a part or structure fits

      a tooth socket

      an eye socket

   2. the receptacle of a ball-and-socket joint

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verb

1. (tr) to furnish with or place into a socket

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• socketless
  adjective
• unsocketed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sockets
  plural

Participles

• socketing
  present
• socketed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• socket
  simple
• sockets
  simple
• have socketed
  perfect
• has socketed
  perfect
• am socketing
  progressive
• are socketing
  progressive
• is socketing
  progressive
• have been socketing
  perfect progressive
• has been socketing
  perfect progressive

Past

• socketed
  simple
• had socketed
  perfect
• was socketing
  progressive
• were socketing
  progressive
• had been socketing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will socket
  simple
• will have socketed
  perfect
• will be socketing
  progressive
• will have been socketing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of socket

1300–50; Middle English soket < Anglo-French, equivalent to Old French soc plowshare (< Gaulish *soccos; compare Welsh swch, Old Irish socc ) + -et -et

Explanation

However many people it takes to change a light bulb, at least one of them will have to unscrew the old bulb from the socket and replace it with a new one. A hollow or cavity that you insert something into is a socket. Many people also call electrical outlets (like the one you plug a toaster into) sockets. This makes sense because you are inserting a plug into it—some purists argue that it has to be called an outlet because power comes out of it, but it's a perfectly good way to use the word. There are also anatomical sockets in our bodies, like eye sockets into which eyeballs fit neatly, and ball-and-socket joints, like hips and shoulders.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

socket sockets socketed socketing

Featuring illuminated eyes in the film, and with original wiring in the right socket, this particular C-3PO head boasts several unique features including a forehead antenna.

From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026

Preserved in nearly perfect three-dimensional detail, the skeleton includes a skull with a huge eye socket and an elongated, sword-like snout.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 24, 2026

He needed to get it onto a two-foot-long metal rod called a socket extension.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026

She strongly recommends electronics are switched off at the wall socket every night before the last person in the house goes to bed.

From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025

I nod, and he gets down on his knees and slips the socket over my stump.

From "The Running Dream" by Wendelin Van Draanen

According to a new study published in Royal Society Open Science, ancient bees used the empty tooth sockets in the fossilized jaws as tiny nests for their offspring.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026

Encord replicated a real data center server rack, where an operator inserts blue cables into penny-sized sockets all day.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2026

The single set of temporal fascia—indentations behind the eye sockets that are doubled on a reptile—is one means of scientific definition.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026

“These sockets saw, and these jaws spoke and swallowed. This is a monument to them. A temple.”

From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2026

The wind practically blows my eyes out of their sockets.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

They kept digging and found a hoard of other artifacts, including socketed ax heads, winged ax heads, cake ingots and blade fragments made of bronze.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 3, 2021

In the Positano brochures, they tell you about the view: the impossible blue of the sea, the colorful buildings socketed like Legos into the craggy hillside, the narrow alleyways of shops and restaurants.

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2019

Did it require special equipment, perhaps a rope woven around short lengths of bamboo that could be covertly socketed together?

From Washington Post ● Oct. 17, 2018

Shoulder-straps and a socketed belt are provided to let the fisherman put his back into his fight with the fish.

From Time Magazine Archive

Freddie's mascot was a few lengths of whalebone bound with twine and socketed into a pear-shaped lump of lead.

From Men of Affairs by Roland Pertwee

Tom Kettering returned at the appointed time, to a minute, and took no notice of his own arrival beyond socketing his whip in its stall, in token of its abdication.

From When Ghost Meets Ghost by William Frend De Morgan

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