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PlainSpell

sink

/ˈsɪŋk/verb, noun

sink is spelled S-I-N-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “sink vs sync” about 30 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, sink means “To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in sink?

Letters4: S-I-N-K
Syllables1
In writing16 times per million words; the 5,025th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is sink?

Sink appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sink?

  • US /ˈsɪŋk/
  • /ˈsiŋk/
  • /zɪŋk/

Sink has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-sink.ogg, En-us-sink.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with sink

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

sink vs sync30 G

Sounds like: cinque, sync (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with sink?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sink from its last stressed vowel (/ɪŋk/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: skin.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of sink

  • sinks present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • sinking participle, present
  • sank past
  • sunk participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sink mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.

    A stone sinks in water.  The sun gradually sank in the west.

  2. 2

    To (directly or indirectly) cause a vessel to sink, generally by making it no longer watertight.

    An iceberg sank the Titanic.  British battleships sank the Bismarck.

  3. 3

    To push (something) into something.

    The joint will hold tighter if you sink a wood screw through both boards.  The dog sank its teeth into the delivery man's leg.

  4. 4

    To make by digging or delving.

    to sink a well in the ground

  5. 5

    To pot; hit a ball into a pocket or hole.

  6. 6

    To experience apprehension, disappointment, dread, or momentary depression.

  7. 7

    To cause to decline; to depress or degrade.

    to sink one's reputation

  8. 8

    To demean or lower oneself; to do something below one's status, standards, or morals.

noun

  1. 1

    A basin used for holding water for washing.

    Roy: The work was fiiine. There was nothing wrong with the work. But they caught him... He pissed in the sink. Jen: Oh. Oh! Roy: Yeah... Jen: Which sink? Roy: All the sinks. Yeah, he basically went on a pee parade around the house. Jen: Oh

  2. 2

    A drain for carrying off wastewater.

  3. 3

    A sinkhole.

  4. 4

    A depression in land where water collects, with no visible outlet.

  5. 5

    A heat sink.

  6. 6

    A place that absorbs resources or energy.

  7. 7

    A habitat that cannot support a population on its own but receives the excess of individuals from some other source.

  8. 8

    Descending motion; descent.

    An excessive sink rate at touchdown can cause the aircraft's landing gear to collapse.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sink in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcouler, s'enfoncer ((''intransitive'') descend into liquid, etc), évier, lavabo (basin)
Germansinken ((''intransitive'') descend into liquid, etc), Abwasch, Abwaschbecken, Spüle (basin), senken (cause (ship, etc) to sink), versenken (push (something) into)
Portugueseafundar ((''intransitive'') descend into liquid, etc), pia (basin), submergir ((''transitive'') submerge), dissipador de calor (heat sink), sumidouro (destination vertex)
Spanishhundirse, afondar ((''intransitive'') descend into liquid, etc), lavamanos, fregadero (basin), echar a fondo (cause (ship, etc) to sink), hundir ((''transitive'') submerge)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sink come from?

From Middle English synken, from Old English sincan, from Proto-West Germanic *sinkwan, from Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷ- (“to fall, sink”). Compare West Frisian sinke, Low German sinken, Dutch zinken, German sinken, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål synke, Swedish sjunka. In the causative sense, it replaced Old English senċan (“make sink”) from Proto-Germanic *sankwijaną.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sink