What does "mineshaft" mean?

A vertical hole through the strata to reach the mineral which is being mined.

What is a synonym for "mineshaft"?

Common synonyms include: shaft, shaft.

Pronounced //ˈmaɪnˌʃæft//.

//ˈmaɪnˌʃæft// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A vertical hole through the strata to reach the mineral which is being mined.
2
excavation consisting of a vertical or sloping passageway for finding or mining ore or for ventilating a mine wordnet

"When I crawled out from the mineshaft, I glanced at the sky and was immediately dumbstruck - two suns were cooking the desert dry of moisture."

From mine + shaft.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.