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quartzite

UK/ˈk(w)ɔːtˌsaɪt/US/ˈk(w)ɔɹtˌsaɪt/
nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — quartz sits at #10,439mostly written

Other forms: quartzites

Quartzite is a very hard rock formed from pressed sandstone. Walk on quartzite.

The grains have fused, so it breaks through them rather than around them. Quartzite makes ridges and summits, because everything softer around it has worn away.

Gabriel Haute Maurienne · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of quartzite

  1. 1nounquartziteA very hard rock formed from pressed sandstone.C2

    “The whole ridge was quartzite and cut through boots.”

quartzite is a rock.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *twerH- — to enclose, grab

  2. Proto-Slavic

    *tvьrdъ

  3. German

    Quarz

  4. English

    quartz

  5. English, today

    quartzite

From quartz + -ite. quartz comes from German Quarz, from Middle High German - (Central East German) quarz, twarc, from a zlw - language [compare Polish twardy (“hard”), Czech tvrdý (“hard”)], from Proto-Slavic tvьrdъ ultimately from Proto-Indo-European twerH- (“to enclose, grab”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Rocks & Minerals

Practise this word

quartzite in the wild

  • Quartz-bearing sandstone can be changed into quartzite through metamorphism, usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts.

    Sandstone

  • Some examples of metamorphic rocks are gneiss, slate, marble, schist, and quartzite.

    Metamorphic rock

  • Slate and quartzite tiles are used in building construction.

    Metamorphic rock

  • Aventurine is a form of quartzite, characterised by its translucency and the presence of platy mineral inclusions that give it a shimmering or glistening effect termed aventurescence.

    Aventurine

  • Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts, and hence quartzite is a metasandstone.

    Quartzite

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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.

Related words

the Quarz family

quartz

quartzite — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others