Sink (verb) means to descend below the surface or to cause something to descend or be overwhelmed. It denotes moving downward, dipping, or going underwater, and can describe objects/substances or reputations/efforts failing. In everyday usage, it covers literal sinking, figurative failure, and phrases where action leads to a downward state.
- You may insert a vowel after the /ŋ/, producing /sɪŋək/; keep it to /sɪŋk/. - Don’t voice the final /k/ as a /g/ or release it too early; the correct release is a crisp voiceless stop. - Some speakers nasalize or reduce the /ɪ/ in casual speech; keep a crisp, short /ɪ/.
- US: crisper /s/ and shorter vowel; keep /ŋ/ compact before /k/. - UK: slightly longer vowel quality, softer /s/ and precise /ŋ/; maintain non-rhotic tendencies. - AU: similar to UK, tends toward slightly broader vowel resonance; ensure /ŋ/ and /k/ are tight and not merged. IPA references: /sɪŋk/ across accents.
"The ship will sink if the hull is breached."
"If you don’t study, your grades may sink."
"The sun’s warmth makes the ice cream melt and sink to the bottom of the cone."
"Her mood sank after hearing the bad news."
Sink comes from Old English sniocian, related to Old Norse synkja and Proto-Germanic snikanan, with the basic idea of downward movement or going under. The verb form evolved from a Germanic root meaning to descend or submerge. In Middle English, sink was used to describe objects going beneath the surface and to describe figurative declines. Over time, the term extended to contexts such as ships going below water, people failing or stagnating in situations, and the surface of liquids dropping below a reference level. By Early Modern English, sink had become a versatile verb with common phrasal usages (sink in, sink down, sink down into a chair). First known written attestations appear in religious and maritime texts, with broader usage in general prose by the 16th–17th centuries. Today, sink maintains its core downward-facing sense while appearing in idiomatic expressions like sink or swim, sink one's teeth into, or sink into oblivion, reflecting its wide semantic reach across domains such as physical movement, metaphorical decline, and idiomatic constructs.
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Words that rhyme with "Sink"
-ink sounds
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You pronounce it as /sɪŋk/. The initial /s/ is voiceless, the vowel is a short, lax /ɪ/ (as in sit), the middle is the velar nasal /ŋ/ as in ring, and the final /k/ is a voiceless velar plosive. In connected speech, the /ɪ/ can be slightly reduced in rapid phrases, but the key is keeping the /ŋ/ sound clear before the /k/.
Common errors include pronouncing it with a d or t at the end (e.g., /sɪnd/ or /sɪkt/) or turning the /ŋ/ into an /n/ or /ŋg/ cluster. Another mistake is overemphasizing the /k/ or adding an extra vowel after it in rapid speech. To correct: keep the final sound as a clean /k/ after the nasal /ŋ/; avoid a following vowel; maintain a crisp /s/ and ensure no vowel epenthesis between /ŋ/ and /k/.
In US/UK/AU, /sɪŋk/ remains similar, but the preceding vowel length and quality may vary slightly with rhythm. American English tends to be shorter, with a quicker transition to the /ŋ/. UK and AU may show a marginally more rounded vowel quality and a slightly perceptible dental or alveolar placement for the /s/. The rhotic presence does not affect this word, but connected speech and flapping are not typical here, so the consonant cluster remains tight.
The challenge lies in the rapid sequence from the alveolar /s/ to the velar nasal /ŋ/ and the close proximity to the final /k/. It’s easy to substitute a /t/ or /d/ or to mispronounce the nasal as an /n/. Also, in linking contexts, the /ŋ/ can blur with the /k/ if the tongue doesn’t clear the velum properly. Focus on a clean /ŋ/ before a final /k/ and avoid vowel insertion between sounds.
Is the /ŋ/ sound in sink affected by preceding or following consonants? Yes. The /ŋ/ is velar nasal and requires you to raise the back of the tongue to the velum while maintaining contact with the soft palate. It’s common to lengthen or misplace the tongue when the following /k/ arrives. In careful speech you should sustain a smooth release from /ŋ/ into /k/ with a brief, controlled glottal or stop closure to prevent a vowel between them.
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