What does drillhole mean?
A drillhole is a hole bored into the earth — typically through rock, soil, or ice — using a drilling rig, most commonly for the purpose of exploring for or extracting natural resources. The term belongs largely to the specialized vocabulary of mining, petroleum, and groundwater industries: geologists plan drillholes to intersect ore bodies, log the cores they recover, and use the resulting data to estimate the size and grade of a deposit. Drillholes also serve scientific ends, such as recovering ice cores that preserve ancient climate records. In form, the word is a straightforward compound of 'drill' and 'hole,' and it appears both as a closed compound and as the open form 'drill hole.' While closely related to 'borehole' — the broader everyday and engineering term — 'drillhole' carries a distinctly exploratory, industrial connotation, evoking rigs on remote ridgelines and the painstaking business of reading the earth's subsurface one sample at a time.
nounA hole made in the ground or in rock by drilling, especially one made to explore for minerals, oil, gas, or water, or to obtain geological samples.
- A hole drilled into rock, soil, or ice, especially for mineral exploration, resource extraction, or obtaining geological samples.
"The geologists logged every core sample extracted from the new drillhole."
"The company reported encouraging assay results from its latest drillhole at the copper project."
"Ice cores recovered from the Antarctic drillhole revealed climate records spanning hundreds of thousands of years."
The plural follows regular English noun inflection; it refers to multiple drilled holes, often within a single exploration program.
"The survey compiled results from over two hundred drillholes across the property."
Every diamond drillhole in a mining exploration program is mapped so precisely that its exact path through kilometres of rock can be reconstructed sample by sample.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of drillhole
Drillhole is an English compound formed from 'drill,' a verb of uncertain but likely Dutch or Low German origin (compare Dutch 'drillen,' meaning to bore or twist), and 'hole,' from Old English 'hol,' meaning a hollow place. Both elements are long established in English, and the compound arose naturally in the industrial era as mechanical drilling transformed mining and resource exploration. It functions as a transparent descriptive compound rather than a borrowed term.
How drillhole is actually used
Drillhole is chiefly technical, appearing in mining, oil and gas, hydrogeology, and scientific drilling literature; in everyday speech, terms like 'well' or simply 'hole' are more common. It is often written as two words ('drill hole') as well, with the closed compound being especially common in industry reports.
Easily confused with drillhole
Borehole is the broader, more common general term for any drilled shaft, while drillhole is used especially in mining and exploration contexts for a drilled hole made to sample or test rock.