Word.ws English Dictionary

skunkworks

skunkworks noun: a loosely organized research and development team or facility.

Noun

skunkworks (plural skunkworks)

  1. A loosely organized research and development team or facility.
    • Not all ideas coming out of the Phillips skunkworks have been success stories, of course. A polyethelene saddle never even made it through the patent process.1998 January 19, Teresa Riordan, “When it comes to number of patents, the petroleum industry is a veritable gusher”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    • Downing Street is seeking applications for a £135,000-a-year data expert to set up a “skunkworks” in No 10, in the latest evidence of Dominic Cummings’ Whitehall shake-up.2020 July 10, Heather Stewart, “Downing Street seeks data expert to set up ‘skunkworks’ in No 10”, in The Guardian

Forms of skunkworks

pluralskunkworks
alternative formskunk works

Origin of skunkworks

From skunk + works, since c. 1943. Skunk Works was the nickname of Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, eventually gaining official recognition. The name is derived from a mysterious, foul-smelling “skonk oil”-brewing facility called the Skonk Works in the comic strip L'il Abner by Al Capp.

Questions about skunkworks

What does skunkworks mean?
Skunkworks means a loosely organized research and development team or facility.
What part of speech is skunkworks?
Skunkworks is a noun.
What is the plural of skunkworks?
The plural of skunkworks is skunkworks.

Words near skunkworks in the dictionary

  1. skunksona
  2. skunksonas
  3. skunktaur
  4. skunkweed
  5. skunkweeds
  6. skunkworks
  7. skunky
  8. Skuodas
  9. Skupshtina
  10. skurf
  11. skurfing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skunkworks (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.

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