Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

inkball

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: inkball
IPA

13

Scrabble Score

7

Letters

1

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The gall of an oak tree, used to produce ink.

noun

A leather-covered dauber, stuffed with soft, resilient wadding, with a wooden handle, used to ink type forms for printing. A predecessor of brayers and self-inking presses.

Example Sentences

"The first tree I knew was an oak under which I played as a small child and gathered large inkballs that I used as marbles."
"I said that ink made from pokeberries was better than that made from inkballs. I said that inkballs on oak trees were scarce. All the other students laughed. They bought commercial ink at the stores."
"[…]consider that this perfect work was done on a wooden press, that the form was inked by hand with inkballs or "daubers,"[…]"
"He turns to the inkstone and picks up by the handles the two inkballs, rolling the leather facings together to freshen the ink. […] As the pressman returns the inkballs to the inkstone, the journeyman closes the frisket and tympan."

Etymology

From ink + ball.

Inflected Forms

inkballs (plural) ink-ball (alternative) ink ball (alternative)

Questions

What does inkball mean?: The gall of an oak tree, used to produce ink.
Where does inkball come from?: From ink + ball.

How to pronounce inkball

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “inkball”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “inkball”.
Repeat and practice — Say “inkball” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.