plummet
Syllables: plum·metUK/ˈplʌmɪt//ˈplʌmət/
plummet noun: a piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line.
Noun
plummet (plural plummets)
- A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line.
- I'le ſeeke him deeper than ere plummet ſounded, / And with him there lye mudded.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- Iudgement also will I lay to the line, and righteousnesse to the plummet: and the haile shall sweepe away the refuge of lyes, and the waters shall ouerflow the hiding place.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 28:17
- Hence, any weight.
- His parachute was shot half away, and if he'd jumped he would have fallen like a plummet.1945, Ernie Pyle, Here Is Your War: Story of G.I. Joe, The World Publishing Company, page 93
- A piece of lead formerly used by schoolchildren to rule paper for writing (that is, to mark with rules, with lines).
- A violent or dramatic fall.
- A decline; a fall; a drop.
- Yet another seriously under-par performance is unlikely to provide any real answers to their remarkable plummet in form - but it proves they can at least churn out a much-needed result.2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC
Verb
plummet (third-person singular simple present plummets, present participle plummeting or (rare, nonstandard) plummetting, simple past and past participle plummeted or (rare, nonstandard) plummetted)
- To drop swiftly, in a direct manner; to fall quickly.
- After its ascent, the arrow plummeted to earth.
- The switchback road to Diabaig - pronounced 'Jer-vague' - passes through some of the most exhilarating scenery in Scotland. […] With a final swoop, the road plummets down into Diabaig, where cottages are dotted across the slopes of a rocky semi-circle.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 151
plummet meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada and Punjabi
plummet in Bengali
- দ্রুত নিচে পড়া, হ্রাস পাওয়া
plummet in Malayalam
- nosedive, plunge, dive
- കുത്തനെവീഴുക, കുത്തനെപതിക്കുക, നിലംപതിക്കുക, താഴേക്കുവീഴുക, തലകീഴായി വീഴുക, മൂക്കുകുത്തുക
- plunge, fall steeply, tumble
- കുത്തനെഇടിയുക, പെട്ടെന്നു താഴുക, താണുപോകുക, താഴുക, ഇടിയുക, കുത്തനെവീഴുക
plummet in Kannada
- ಏಕಾಏಕಿ ಹಳ್ಳಕ್ಕೆ ಬೀಳು, ಹಠಾತ್ತಾಗಿ ಕೆಳಕ್ಕೆ ಕುಸಿ
plummet in Punjabi
- to plummet; decline
- ڈگنا ḍiggṇā
More languagesFewer languages
- plummet in Tagalog
- sumadsad
- plummet in Arabic
- مِطْمَار miṭmār, مِطْمَر miṭmar, شَاقُول šāqūl, تُرّ turr
- plummet in Persian
- شاغول šâġul
- plummet in Thai
- ลูกดิ่ง lûuk-dìng, ดิ่ง dìng
- plummet in Vietnamese
- lập loòng, dây dọi
Examples of plummet in a sentence
- Each long black hair upon his head hung down as straight as any plummet line; […]1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […]...
- And love was the plummet dropped down into the deeps of him where like had never gone.1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter VI, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October...
- Some speculated Twitter’s stock would plummet, while another said the company would not have to be owned by “a moron,” using an expletive to refer to Mr.2022 October 4, Kate Conger, Lauren Hirsch, “Elon Musk Suggests Buying Twitter at His Original Price”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- But the replacement of the services by buses, which take far longer because of the number of stations in out-of-the-way villages on the route, will ensure they plummet again.2022 December 14, Christian Wolmar, “No Marston Vale line trains... and no one in charge seems to 'give a damn'”, in RAIL, number 972, page...
Synonyms of plummet
Antonyms
Forms of plummet
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | plummets |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | plummets |
| present participle | plummeting |
| past participle | plummeted |
| past | plummeted |
| present participle (nonstandard, rare) | plummetting |
| past participle (nonstandard, rare) | plummetted |
| past (nonstandard, rare) | plummetted |
Origin of plummet
From Middle English plommet (“ball of lead, plumb of a bob-line”), recorded since 1382, from Old French plommet or plomet, the diminutive of plom, plum (“lead, sounding lead”), from Latin plumbum (“lead”). The verb is first recorded in 1626, originally meaning “to fathom, take soundings", from the noun.
Words formed from plummet
Words that rhyme with plummet
Questions about plummet
- What does plummet mean?
- Plummet means a piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line.
- What is plummet in Bengali?
- Plummet in Bengali is দ্রুত নিচে পড়া, হ্রাস পাওয়া. See Plummet meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use plummet in a sentence?
- Each long black hair upon his head hung down as straight as any plummet line; […]
- What part of speech is plummet?
- Plummet can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce plummet?
- Plummet is pronounced /ˈplʌmɪt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of plummet?
- The plural of plummet is plummets.
Words near plummet in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: plummet (page history and authors); plummet (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); plummet (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); plummet (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ڈگنا (Punjabi) (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)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-plummet.wav.
Cite this entry: “plummet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plummet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.