CS Knowledge Base

An example of a collet (1) with a bit designed to fit it.

An animation showing a collet being pulled into its taper.

The silver ring with nubs, which holds the sapphire, is the collet (2).

Rhizophora development structures and stages, from embryo on parent plant, to rooted seedling, showing collet (3).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑlɪt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒlɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɒlɪt
• Hyphenation: col‧let

From Middle French collet. Doublet of collar.

collet (plural collets)

2. A band, flange, ferrule, or collar, designed to grip and hold a tool or a workpiece under proper control, and usually to release it under control thereafter; such a collet usually is made of a hard, springy material, especially a metal.

   That collet can handle up to 3/8-inch bits.

3. (jewelry) The rim (of a ring) within which a jewel is set.

   Synonym: bezel

   There is an almost invisible collet that secures the stone to the ring.

4. (horticulture) In an embryonic plant, the transition zone between the root and the hypocotyl (not clearly distinguishable in most plants.)

   Collar rot forms in the collet between the stem and the root.

collet (plural collets)

1. Alternative form of colet (“lower servant in a church”).

• collet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [kuˈʎe̞t]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [koˈʎət]
• IPA^(key): (Central) [kuˈʎɛt]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [koˈʎet]

From coll (“hill”) +‎ -et.

collet m (plural collets)

1. (chiefly in toponyms) small hill

   Synonym: pujol

From coll (“neck”) +‎ -et.

collet m (plural collets)

1. diminutive of coll (“neck”)
2. the collar of a garment (especially a detachable one)

• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “collet”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)
• “collet”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026

Inherited from Middle French collet. By surface analysis, col +‎ -et.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.lɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Hérault)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Saint-Étienne)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

collet m (plural collets)

1. (obsolete) collar
2. snare, noose
3. (short) cape
4. (dentistry) neck (of tooth)
5. (botany) neck

• colletin
• collet monté

• → Portuguese: colete

• “collet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From Latin collum (“neck”) (modern co) +‎ -et.

collet m (plural collets)

1. (Jersey) collar
2. (Jersey) oarweed (Laminaria digitata, Laminaria saccharina)