How to Use sprocket in a Sentence

sprocket

noun
  • There is no sprocket with teeth.
    — Ed Sokalski, Chicago Tribune, 27 Feb. 2026
  • When force is applied, the pulleys move out and the sprocket as a whole expands.
    — Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 30 Nov. 2023
  • This is a minor gripe, but the bar retention nuts are not held to the chain sprocket cover.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 30 Nov. 2022
  • Which is a metaphor, but Siegfried does probably also have some sprockets rolling around.
    — Alice Burton, Vulture, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Watch for the front and rear sprockets expanding and contracting.
    — Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 30 Nov. 2023
  • Sometimes a single broken tooth on a tiny plastic sprocket can throw a proverbial wrench in the works.
    — NBC News, 2 Mar. 2021
  • The derailleurs should move the chain easily between sprockets.
    — George Petras, USA Today, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The Iron 1200 has all-black, nine-spoke wheels and a solid black belt guard and rear sprocket.
    — Rick Barrett, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 21 Feb. 2018
  • But the company states that the compact unit will ship to ebike makers with a wiring harness, cranks, sprockets and a large chainring.
    — Paul Ridden, New Atlas, 18 Feb. 2025
  • As Derwacter stood up there, the motor’s spinning sprocket snatched his sleeve, pulling his arm into the machine.
    — Isaac Arnsdorf, ProPublica, 3 Oct. 2019
  • This machine is beautifully detailed, down to the custom sprocket guard and the quilted seat.
    — New Atlas, 6 Mar. 2026
  • The derailleurs should move the chain easily between sprockets – the front between the chain rings and the rear across the gear cluster or cassette.
    — George Petras, USA Today, 2 Apr. 2025
  • The 16-foot tall stainless-steel structure depicts a white oval with black slashes painted across on a sprocket, atop red and white block-style posts.
    — John Tuohy, The Indianapolis Star, 3 July 2021
  • It's propelled along a surprisingly slender chain, anchored on each side of the river, with links an inch wide fed through a sprocket as the crank rotates.
    — Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press, 14 Aug. 2022
  • Each individual photo was the height of four perforations that were cut into the film so sprockets in the camera could move it along as it was exposed.
    — Stan Horaczek, Popular Science, 7 Apr. 2020
  • Once the saw pierces the outer fabric, the chain tears into the synthetic fibers below, which so thoroughly entangle the chain and its sprocket that both are stopped dead in their tracks.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 11 Nov. 2021
  • Le Prince and his assistants devised a mechanism whereby pins installed in the projector’s rotating drums would engage with sprocket holes on the edges of the film.
    — Nat Segnit, Harper's Magazine, 4 Mar. 2022
  • The Idaho house has an amphitheater, a pond and a round, 12-foot metal sprocket, once used in a Montana mine, decorating its doors.
    — Nancy Keates, WSJ, 5 Jan. 2022
  • Two electric motors, each delivering eight shaft horsepower, are used; there is one to each rear wheel, the latter being driven by a rugged sprocket and chain system that is geared down to conserve power.
    — B.c. George, Car and Driver, 27 June 2022
  • The first movies for which the soundtrack was printed on the film itself—in a narrow strip of spectral lines, next to the sprocket holes, which an optical reader converted to an audio signal—came a few years later.
    — David Owen, The New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2022
  • That includes the mudguard, tank cover, radiator cover, sprocket cover, heel guards, handlebar splash guards, seat base, intake duct, number plate holder, and rear seat cover.
    — New Atlas, 4 Apr. 2026
  • The company's name sits on a magnetic armature, and the whole design is circled with a sprocket to signify mechanical engineering.
    — Tyler Langan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6 Sep. 2017
  • The palm-sized tool engages each sprocket with just a tiny turn and has multiple configurations for maximum situational adaptability.
    — New Atlas, 21 Nov. 2025
  • This approach was chosen because the sixteen-valve engine had to meet the space restrictions of several different Volkswagen models, and there was not enough room for the two large sprockets needed to drive both cams directly by the belt.
    — Csaba Csere, Car and Driver, 21 Mar. 2023
  • In a movie ostensibly built out of cell phone and security-cam footage, how do the visible sprocket holes of celluloid and static reminiscent of VHS tracking problems pop up here?
    — John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Sep. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sprocket.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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