An inkwell is a small container that holds ink for writing with a pen. Before ballpoint pens and modern fountain pens existed, people wrote by dipping the tip of a pen (usually made from a feather quill or metal nib) into an inkwell, then writing until the ink ran out and dipping again.

In old-fashioned classrooms, each student's desk often had a small hole in the upper right corner where an inkwell sat, ready for writing lessons. The inkwell might be made of glass, ceramic, or metal, and it needed to be just the right depth: deep enough to hold plenty of ink, but not so deep that you'd plunge your whole pen in and make a mess.

Today, most people use pens with built-in ink supplies, so inkwells have become antiques you might see in museums or old photographs. But the word lives on in other ways: some fountain pen enthusiasts still use inkwells to refill their pens, and you might hear the phrase inkwell desk to describe those vintage school desks with the telltale round hole for an inkwell.