Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A natural, variously colored calcium fluoride phosphate, Ca5F(PO4)3, with chlorine, hydroxyl, or carbonate sometimes replacing the fluoride. It is a source of phosphorus for plants and is used in the manufacture of fertilizers.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Native calcium phosphate with calcium fluorid or chlorid, generally crystallized in hexagonal prisms, which are sometimes low or even tabular, sometimes elongated, and occasionally of great size. It varies in color from white to green or blue, rarely to yellow or reddish. Apatite occurs in metalliferous veins and in metamorphic and granitic rocks. In Canada and in Norway extensive deposits of it are mined for the sake of its phosphates, which are useful as fertilizers.
Wiktionary
- n. mineralogy A calcium fluoride phosphate of variable composition, sometimes used in the manufacture of fertilizer.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Min.) Native phosphate of lime, occurring usually in six-sided prisms, color often pale green, transparent or translucent.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a common complex mineral consisting of calcium fluoride phosphate or calcium chloride phosphate; a source of phosphorus
Etymologies
- From Greek apatē, deceit (from its often being mistaken for other minerals). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And one of the properties of [hydroxy] apatite is that you can have supersaturated solutions of calcium and phosphate that can be maintained quite stably.”
“His team took a detailed look at a mineral within the basalt called apatite using an ion microprobe that can analyze grains much smaller than the width of a human hair.”
“The extent of processing the so-called apatite concentrate produced by your feedstock suppliers is not being regulated in any way.”
“On the large scale, mechanical arrangements are employed for mixing the materials, so as to economise labour, and mineral phosphates, such as apatite, can then be used with advantage.”
“Her LUXE designs are filled with precious and semi-precious gemstones such as apatite, iolite and hessonite delicately clustered with emerald, ruby and topaz.”
“Calcium links up with phosphates to make the chemical "apatite" (calcium phosphate), one of the hardest chemicals we know, which is what makes bones hard and stony, and tough.”
- The Naked Scientists Naked Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science
“rock phosphate," a variety of apatite which is mainly phosphate of lime.”
A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines.
“President Obama himself has faced a stinging rebuke from congress for his comments about lawmakers '"obsession" with the war, and the Out of Afghanistan Caucus continues to chip away at what little apatite for war remains in congress.”
The Huffington Post: Josh Mull: All politics is local: Al-Qa'eda and the Afghanistan War
“It's like criticizing the Roman Catholic belief because so many priests have an unhealthy apatite for young boys 'buttocks.”
“On the scale of organisms, bones contain phosphorus in apatite form and it's also an essential nutrient for plants, though P excess is as much a problem as its lack.”
The Huffington Post: Athena Andreadis, Ph.D.: Arsenic and Odd Lace
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘apatite’.
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[Open] Correctly-spelled words that l...
Thanks to everyone who added to this list. (I moved it to a new URL, so all the words added on the first day are credited to me—sorry about that.)
(Here’s the original list with a slo...orignal, refect, collum, lightening, manakin, neumatic, mutch, miosis, radicle, tryptic, kyack, apatite and 119 more...
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Not edible
Things that sound edible but are not (usually). See Liberty's To Eat, or Not to Eat? for more diet food.
cinnabar, dulcimer, belfries, potto, maltha, grapple, loam, rake, tort, pomade, buffalo chip, wedgie and 172 more...
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Dinosaurs, extended
At first, this was a list for things found in Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History by David E. Fastovsky. But now it's degenerated a bit to contain anything dinosaur or fossil related.
disarticulate, body fossil, trace fossil, apatite, soft anatomy, permineralization, replacement, articulated, disarticulated, intestine’s-eye view, ichnofossil, paleoenvironment and 270 more...
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Allographic Homophones
Words that can be pronounced identically but are spelled differently. I've started with unusual or extensive sets. In some of these sets, no one speaker would pronounce them all the same. I've trie...
air, are, ayr, ayre, e'er, ere, err, eyre, heir, apatite, appetite, picnic and 226 more...
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Professional Scrabble Lexicon (TWL)
A myriad of game-changing words every Scrabble addict must have in his arsenal.
Keep in mind that these are all tried-and-true feasibly playable words selected for their handiness, i.e...paragon, pignora, ganef, suttee, origan, ohia, aioli, abasement, lehr, mho, tallow, harelike and 843 more...
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my favorite geology terms
(i'm a rock nerd, so what? :P)
dodecahedron, schist, gneiss, rhombic, conchoidal, metamorphose, loam, shale, sphalerite, apatite, orbital harmony, carboniferous and 26 more...
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lapidary
agate, jasper, garnet, ruby, sapphire, onyx, topaz, turquoise, carnelian, jade, diamond, amethyst and 27 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for apatite.
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