breccia

[ brech-ee-uh, bresh- ]

/ ˈbrɛtʃ i ə, ˈbrɛʃ- /

noun Petrology.

rock composed of angular fragments of older rocks melded together.

Nearby words

breathless, breathlessly, breathtaking, breathtakingly, breathy, breccia, brecciate, brecht, brecht, bertolt, breckinridge, breckinridge, john

Origin of breccia

1765–75; < Italian < Germanic; compare Old High German brecha breaking

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for breccia

There was a good deal of sandstone, breccia or puddingstone, but near us on all sides the limestone formation was seen.
Letters from Palestine|J. D. Paxton
Several human skeletons were found in a cave near Louisville, Ky., cemented into a breccia.
A Manual of the Antiquity of Man|J. P. MacLean
Its material is a breccia from a quarry near Thebes, and is remarkable for its hardness.
Museum of Antiquity|L. W. Yaggy
The specimen of this breccia is attached to a plate of granular quartz, and may possibly have been part of a vein.
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2]|Phillip Parker King

Huge blocks of the breccia have fallen onto a gentle bare slope west of Little Strawberry Lake.
The Geologic Setting of the John Day Country|Thomas Prence Thayer

British Dictionary definitions for breccia

breccia

/ (ˈbrɛtʃɪə) /

noun

a rock consisting of angular fragments embedded in a finer matrix, formed by erosion, impact, volcanic activity, etc

Derived Forms

brecciated, adjective

Word Origin for breccia

C18: from Italian, from Old High German brecha a fragment; see breach

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Science definitions for breccia

breccia

[ brĕch′ē-ə, brĕch′ə, brĕsh′- ]

A rock composed of angular fragments embedded in a fine-grained matrix. Breccias form from explosive volcanic ejections, the compaction of talus, or plate tectonic processes. Breccias are different from conglomerates in that the fragments they contain are angular instead of rounded.