Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A dense, homogeneous rock with constituents so fine that they cannot be seen by the naked eye.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A very fine-grained variety of diorite (which see), or one in which the component minerals, chiefly triclinic feldspar and hornblende, cannot be distinguished with the naked eye.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Min.) A very compact, dark-colored �ock, consisting of hornblende, or pyroxene, and feldspar, but neither of them in perceptible grains.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun geology Certain dark
igneous rocks havinggrain sofine that the individualcrystals cannot be seen with thenaked eye .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun fine-grained homogeneous rock (such as basalt) containing minerals undetectable by the naked eye
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[From Greek aphanēs, unseen : a-, not; see a– + phainesthai, phan-, to appear, passive of phainein, to show; see phenomenon.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Ancient Greek ἀφανής (aphanēs, "indistinct, unseen, obscure").
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Examples
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