sprocket
Americannoun
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Machinery.
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Also called chainwheel. Also called sprocket wheel. a toothed wheel engaging with a conveyor or power chain.
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one tooth of such a wheel.
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Carpentry. a wedge-shaped piece of wood extending a sloping roof over the eaves with a flatter pitch.
noun
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Also called: sprocket wheel. a relatively thin wheel having teeth projecting radially from the rim, esp one that drives or is driven by a chain
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an individual tooth on such a wheel
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a cylindrical wheel with teeth on one or both rims for pulling film through a camera or projector
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a small wedge-shaped piece of wood used to extend a roof over the eaves
Etymology
Origin of sprocket
First recorded in 1530–40; origin uncertain
Vocabulary lists containing sprocket
Mechanical Engineering
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Engineering - Middle School
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Engineering - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What came first, the sprocket or the oil?
From Salon • Jun. 6, 2026
Over in a dilapidated shack on the opposite side of the highway, 24-year-old Nasratullah Raihan said much the same as he watched a repairman fiddle with the rear sprocket of his bicycle.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 17, 2021
He’s always been a gearhead, devoted to celluloid and sprocket holes, but his best movies are also sentimental as hell—big, sloppy tearjerkers wrapped inside clockwork thrillers.
From Slate • Aug. 27, 2020
At the Central Wood Car Wash in Largo, Md., owner Paul Earp turned on the big conveyor belt only to discover a cold-fractured sprocket.
From Washington Post • Dec. 28, 2017
In syrupy light Luce was feeding the celluloid through the sprocket wheel.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
