Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A white or light-colored mineral, essentially CaMg(CO3)2, used in fertilizer, as a furnace refractory, and as a construction and ceramic material.
- n. A magnesia-rich sedimentary rock resembling limestone.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A native carbonate of calcium and magnesium, occurring as a crystallized mineral, and also on a large scale in white granular crystalline rock-masses, and then often called dolomite marble. The proportions of the carbonates vary from 1:1 to 1:3 or 1:5.
- n. A rock consisting essentially of this mineral. It occurs in large masses in various regions, and especially in that of the upper Mississippi, where there are several members of the geological series which are at least two or three hundred feet thick, made up of dolomite in a remarkably pure form.
- n. a stage of the New York series of formations represented by magnesian limestones, constituting a final phase in the Silurian of the Appalachian region. The formation is characterized by its remarkable profusion of merostome crustaceans of the genera Eurypterus, Pterygotus, Eusarcus, etc., and has commonly been known as the Eurypterus beds, corresponding in position to similar fossiliferous beds of Great Britain and the Baltic provinces.
Wiktionary
- n. mineralogy A saline evaporite consisting of a mixed calcium and magnesium carbonate, with the chemical formula CaMg(CO3)2; it also exists as the rock dolostone.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Geol. & Min.) A mineral consisting of the carbonate of lime and magnesia in varying proportions. It occurs in distinct crystals, and in extensive beds as a compact limestone, often crystalline granular, either white or clouded. It includes much of the common white marble. Also called
bitter spar .
WordNet 3.0
- n. a kind of sedimentary rock resembling marble or limestone but rich in magnesium carbonate
- n. a light colored mineral consisting of calcium magnesium carbonate; a source of magnesium; used as a ceramic and as fertilizer
Etymologies
- From French dolomite, named after French mineralogist and engineer Déodat de Dolomieu (1750–1801) in 1791. (Wiktionary)
- French, after Déodat de Dolomieu (1750-1801), French geologist. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Known as the "Pale Mountains," they boast a chemical composition dubbed dolomite stratified calcium magnesium carbonate, deposited more than 230 million years ago when seawater covered the region.”
“There it will be forced into spaces in a type of limestone called Knox dolomite, which is found beneath much of Kentucky and the region.”
“MgCO3 are referred to as "dolomite" or as dolomitic limestone, and those containing between 5 -20 % MgCO3, as magnesian limestone.”
“Thus the sulphate constitutes the minerals anhydrite, alabaster, gypsum, and selenite; the carbonate occurs dissolved in most natural waters and as the minerals chalk, marble, calcite, aragonite; also in the double carbonates such as dolomite, bromlite, barytocalcite; the fluoride as fluorspar; the fluophosphate constitutes the mineral apatite; while all the more important mineral silicates contain a proportion of this element.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary"
“Pistorius was born in 1986 in Johannesburg to Sheila and Henke, who works in dolomite mining.”
The Guardian: Is it fair for 'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius to run in London Olympics?
“About half the material was "non-fibrous" including polystyrene foam, vermiculite mineral, combustion product carbon soot, mineral dust of gypsum, calcite, dolomite and quartz.”
The Huffington Post: September 11 Toxic Dust: Deciphering My Pocketful Of Terror
“A protective wall of dolomite and earth – 610 yards (620 meters) long, with an average height of nearly 9 feet (2.7 meters) – has been built in Kolontar to shield the area from further spills of the red sludge, a highly caustic waste produced when making alumina, which is used to make aluminum.”
“Magnesium (to make magnesium chloride) comes from dolomite, the principle ore of magnesium.”
“The Richtersveld national park is an immense expanse of quartz, granite and dolomite-littered moonscape, with crenulated peaks jutting sharply into vast skies.”
The Guardian: South Africa beyond the World Cup: the remote west coast
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dolomite’.
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Minerals and Mineralogy
List of minerals, elements, group names and geochemistry terms encountered in the science of mineralogy. I've chosen to avoid capital letters in most examples, though a great many mineral names hon...
galkhaite, xanthoconite, pyrostilpnite, polybasite, pyrargyrite, djurleite, digenite, covellite, chalcocite, cerargirite, acanthite, aeschynite and 2608 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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Marbles
From the GNU Webster's 1913:
"n. A massive, compact limestone; a variety of calcite, capable of being polished and used for architectural and ornamental purposes. The color varies from white ...marble, marbles, lost my marbles, Elgin Marbles, Yule marble, Verona red marble, Carrara marble, Pentelican marble, Parian marble, bardiglio, lumachelle, fire-marble and 117 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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words
diplopic, dolorous, farrago, surety, scuttlebutt, Arabesque, infarct, neurasthenia, lambent, expurge, univocal, simper and 395 more...
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elij's Words
diegesis, intrinsic, semantic, salience, nonchalant, infosthetics, ambiguous, altruism, cynical, abstruse, vatic, encomium and 137 more...
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Words next
patrimony, cacophony, fearsome, coruscating, coruscating, coruscating, dolomite, dolorous, transdermal, chatty cathy, chatterbox, incessantly and 249 more...
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Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
By David Foster Wallace
emeritus, apian, fenestration, prophylax, pelisse, niggardly, lallating, pica, simulacrum, floridly, acquiesced, truculent and 114 more...
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Objects and Things
anteroom, flagon, cocotte, ambry, cloche, pate, vespiary, fricassee, carousal, psoas, tome, aperture and 38 more...
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Bender Bending Rodriguez
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
chump, chumpette, yours, up, pimpmobile, bite, my, shiny, daffodil, ass, robosexual, meatbag and 12 more...
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arynzmuse's Words
cacaphony, jealously, aerie, substrate, sedimentology, planetarium, aqueous, sororal, feminine, quidditch, muggle, uniformitarianism and 53 more...
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3
condiment, tortoise shell, virile, wolverine, chyme, aeons, grotesque, pontiferous, blurb, dais, squiffy, decadent and 88 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dolomite.
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