Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of a group of widely occurring yellowish-brown to black iron oxide minerals, essentially FeO(OH)·nH2O, used as a minor ore of iron.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An important iron ore which is found earthy, concretionary, or mammillary and fibrous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Min.) Hydrous sesquioxide of iron, an important ore of iron, occurring in stalactitic, mammillary, or earthy forms, of a dark brown color, and yellowish brown powder. It includes bog iron. Also called brown hematite.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mineralogy any of several natural hydrous iron oxides; often a mixture of goethite and hemite with clays and manganese oxide

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a widely occurring iron oxide ore; a mixture of goethite and hematite and lepidocrocite

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Limonit, from Greek leimōn, meadow.]

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Examples

  • In others, again, are found considerable quantities of soft powdery iron oxide or "gossan," and compounds such as limonite, aluminous clay, etc., which, under the action of the crushing mill become finely divided and float off in water as "slimes," carrying with them atoms of gold, often microscopically small.

    Getting Gold: a practical treatise for prospectors, miners and students

  • It was extracted from ruddle (red ochre) and limonite

    The Land of Midian 2003

  • Interestingly, a large house adjacent to the pits had unusual limestone flooring and deposits of limonite and ocher -- sometimes used as pigments by Southeastern groups to paint the body during rituals -- suggesting special ceremonial activities took place in this structure.

    Another Surprise near Cahokia 2002

  • The quantity usually used is 5% and it has proved to be attractive for stabilizing sandy soils, clayey and silty sandy soils, soils rich in limonite (some laterites) in arid regions, and in general soils which lack cohesion.

    Chapter 11 1994

  • The ores in question have various local names: brown haematite (xanthosiderite), limonite, pea ore, conglomerate ore, minette (iron ooliths), sea ore, bog ore, stilpnosiderite, yellow clay ironstone, yellow ochre.

    6. Purifying absorbent 1985

  • They hopped off across the limonite sand, forgetting the Overlord game, racing to meet the falling thing.

    Covergent Series Niven, Larry 1979

  • A gentle rain of infrared light bathed the limonite sands.

    Covergent Series Niven, Larry 1979

  • Sandstone of various colours was the chief material employed by the Khmers; limonite was also used.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 Various

  • The crystals from Anglesey, which were formerly found abundantly on a matrix of dull limonite, are small in size and simple in form, being usually bounded by four faces of a prism and four faces of a dome; they are brownish-yellow in colour owing to a stain of limonite.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 Various

  • Torres behind the city of Puerto Plata, limonite deposits at various places in Santo Domingo province, and a rich black iron oxide on the upper Ozama River.

    Santo Domingo A Country with a Future Otto Schoenrich

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