different between sounding vs plumbing

English

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) enPR: sound??ng, IPA^(key): /?sa?nd??/
• Rhymes: -a?nd??

Etymology 1

sound (“produce a sound”) +? -ing.

Noun

sounding (plural soundings)

1. The action of the verb to sound.
   • c. 1650, John Lightfoot, The Temple-Service

     And thus did the trumpets sound one-and-twenty blasts every day; […] three soundings at the three pausings of the music, […]

Adjective

sounding (not comparable)

1. Emitting a sound.

   The sounding bell woke me up.

2. Sonorous.

   • sounding words

   • 1849, Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee

     In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Verb

sounding

1. present participle of sound

Etymology 2

From sound (“examine with the instrument called a sound, or by auscultation or percussion”) +? -ing.

Noun

sounding (plural soundings)

1. Test made with a probe or sonde.
   • 2011, John P. Rafferty, Oceans and Oceanography (page 189)

     Soundings showed wide variations in depths of water, and from the dredgings of the bottom came new types of sediment […]

   • 2020 June 25, National Weather Service Boston 9:52 AM forecast discussion:

     Morning sounding at Chatham showed dry adiabatic lapse rate all the way to 700 mb this morning […]

2. A measured depth of water.

   The sailor took a sounding every five minutes

3. The act of inserting of a thin metal rod into the urethra of the penis for medical or sexual purposes
4. (chiefly in the plural) Any place or part of the ocean, or other water, where a sounding line will reach the bottom.
   • Spanish Ladies, naval song, chorus

     We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas; Until we strike soundings in the Channel of old England

5. The sand, shells, etc. brought up by the sounding lead when it has touched bottom.

Translations

Anagrams

• undoings

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pl?m??/
• Rhymes: -?m??

Noun

plumbing (countable and uncountable, plural plumbings)

1. The pipes, together with the joints, tanks, stopcocks, taps and other fixtures of a water, gas or sewage system in a house or other building.
2. The trade or occupation of a plumber.
3. (informal) A system of vessels or ducts in the human body, especially the genitourinary system.

   My plumbing was playing up, so I had to see the doctor.

4. (informal, figuratively) Practical, concrete work serving to support other work.

   This is not scientific research as such: it's just plumbing.

5. (countable) A Murasugi sum where each disk summed along has its boundary subdivided into four segments.

Synonyms

• (genitourinary system): waterworks (informal)

Related terms

• plumb
• plumber

Translations

See also

• waterworks