shale
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of shale
1740–50; origin uncertain; compare obsolete shale to split (said of stone), to shell, derivative of shale shell, husk, Old English scealu shell, husk; see scale 2
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Vocabulary lists containing shale
Earth Science - Middle School
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Earth Science - High School
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Geology - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Shale is a fine-grained rock that often contains organic material, and it can also host minerals like pyrite.
From Science Daily • Apr. 16, 2026
This type of preservation is more commonly associated with famous Cambrian fossil sites such as the Burgess Shale in Canada.
From Science Daily • Apr. 6, 2026
Shale companies have become proficient at drilling fewer but much longer horizontal wells, which allows them to trim costs and still extract more crude.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 4, 2026
Back in the early days of the shale boom around 2010, American producers explored going abroad, according to Rob Clarke, U.S. shale analyst at Wood Mackenzie, referring to this initial period as “Global Shale 1.0.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 10, 2026
Shale pooed from the cliffs off toward Charmouth.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
