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graphite

US/ˈɡɹæfaɪt/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,166 of 15,258leans written

Graphite is soft grey carbon used in pencils and lubricants. A graphite pencil, graphite powder, graphite rods.

It and diamond are both pure carbon, and the only difference is how the atoms are joined: graphite is sheets that slide over each other, which is why it marks paper and works as a dry lubricant. There has never been lead in a pencil.

Robert M. Lavinsky · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of graphite

  1. 1noungraphiteSoft grey carbon used in pencils and lubricants.B2+

    “The artist used soft graphite pencils for the dark shading in her drawing.”

graphite is a mineral.

Where it comes from

German Graphit was coined in 1789 from Greek graphein, to write.

  1. German

    Graphit

  2. English, today

    graphite

Borrowed from German Graphit. Borrowed from German Graphit (A. G. Werner 1789), from Ancient Greek γράφω (“to write”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Materials & Substances

Practise this word

graphite in the wild

  • Most pencil cores are made of graphite powder mixed with a clay binder.

    Pencil

  • The RBMK is a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor designed and built by the Soviet Union.

    RBMK

  • The channels also contain the coolant, and are surrounded by graphite.

    RBMK

  • Well-known forms of carbon include diamond and graphite.

    Allotropes of carbon

  • So weak is this bond that it is broken with little force, giving graphite a slippery feel as layers shear apart.

    Cleavage (crystal)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.