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igneous

UK/ˈɪɡ.ni.əs/US/ˈɪɡ.ni.əs/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,001 of 15,258mostly written

Igneous means formed from molten rock that cooled and set. Igneous rock, an igneous intrusion, igneous and sedimentary.

It is one of the three great rock classes with sedimentary and metamorphic. Cooling speed decides the grain: slow underground gives large crystals as in granite, fast at the surface gives fine ones as in basalt. Note that the Latin means fiery, from ignis, fire, the same root as ignite.

Definitions of igneous

  1. 1adjectiveigneousFormed from molten rock that cooled and set.C1

    “Granite is an igneous rock that formed deep underground.”

igneous is a rock type.

Where it comes from

Latin igneus means fiery, from ignis, fire. Ignite and ignition come from the same fire.

  1. Latin

    igneus — fiery

  2. English, today

    igneous

From Latin igneus (“fiery”). by surface analysis, ign- + -eous.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Rocks & Minerals

Practise this word

igneous in the wild

  • Subsequently, the name was given to any igneous rocks with large crystals.

    Porphyry (geology)

  • A xenocryst is an individual foreign crystal included within an igneous body.

    Xenolith

  • The large-scale inclusion of foreign rock strata at the margins of an igneous intrusion is called a roof pendant.

    Xenolith

  • Intrusion is one of the two ways igneous rock can form.

    Intrusive rock

  • An intrusion is any body of intrusive igneous rock, formed from magma that cools and solidifies within the crust of the planet.

    Intrusive rock

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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.