Word.ws English Dictionary

dumb hole

dumb hole noun: a phenomenon in which phonons (sound perturbations) are unable to escape from a fluid that is flowing more quickly than the local speed of sound.

Noun

dumb hole (plural dumb holes)

  1. A phenomenon in which phonons (sound perturbations) are unable to escape from a fluid that is flowing more quickly than the local speed of sound.
    Synonyms:
    sonic black hole

Synonyms of dumb hole

  • sonic black hole

Forms of dumb hole

pluraldumb holes

Origin of dumb hole

Similar to black hole, formed with dumb (“mute, silent”). Used at least since 1994.

Questions about dumb hole

What does dumb hole mean?
Dumb hole means a phenomenon in which phonons (sound perturbations) are unable to escape from a fluid that is flowing more quickly than the local speed of sound.
What part of speech is dumb hole?
Dumb hole is a noun.
What is the plural of dumb hole?
The plural of dumb hole is dumb holes.

Words near dumb hole in the dictionary

  1. dumb genius
  2. dumb geniuses
  3. dumb gulper shark
  4. dumb gulper sharks
  5. dumb hard
  6. dumb hole
  7. dumb holes
  8. dumb insolence
  9. dumb like a fox
  10. dumb luck
  11. dumb money

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dumb hole (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dumb hole.wav.

Cite this entry: “dumb hole.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dumb_hole. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.