Petroleum source

The answer

SHALE

5 letters. See every clue for this answer on the SHALE answer page.

Used 12 times across 10 distinct years; most recently in 2024; first recorded in 1961. It appears in 5 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other clues for SHALE

Every other clue in this collection answered by SHALE, most used first.

• Layered rock - used 51 times, most recently in 2026
• Fissile rock - used 48 times, most recently in 2025
• Oil source - used 48 times, most recently in 2021
• Sedimentary rock - used 28 times, most recently in 2025
• Oil-bearing rock - used 27 times, most recently in 2026
• Fine-grained rock - used 17 times, most recently in 2023
• Oil-yielding rock - used 17 times, most recently in 2023
• Laminated rock - used 15 times, most recently in 2014
• Oil-producing rock - used 9 times, most recently in 2020
• Rock that's "fracked" - used 9 times, most recently in 2025
• Fracking target - used 7 times, most recently in 2024
• Fuel-yielding rock - used 7 times, most recently in 2023
• Easily split rock - used 6 times, most recently in 2020
• Flaky rock - used 6 times, most recently in 2026
• Fossil-yielding rock - used 6 times, most recently in 2026
• Stratified rock - used 6 times, most recently in 2006

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Chocolate source - CACAO, used 153 times
• Tequila source - AGAVE, used 95 times
• Syrup source - MAPLE, used 84 times
• Down source - EIDER, used 62 times
• Oil source - OLIVE, used 52 times
• Milk source - UDDER, used 47 times

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