calamite

American  

[kal-uh-mahyt] / ˈkæl əˌmaɪt /

noun

1. any fossil plant of the genus Calamites and related genera of the Carboniferous Period, resembling oversized horsetails and constituting much of the coal used as fuel.

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calamite British  

/ ˈkæləˌmaɪt /

noun

1. any extinct treelike plant of the genus Calamites, of Carboniferous times, related to the horsetails

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Other Word Forms

• calamitean adjective
• calamitoid adjective

Etymology

Origin of calamite

1745–55; < New Latin Calamites the genus name, Latin calamītēs < Greek kalamī́tēs reedlike. See calamus, -ite ¹

Example Sentences

Sir William Dawson assigns the calamites to four sub-types: calamite proper, calamopitus, calamodendron, and eucalamodendron.

From The Story of a Piece of Coal What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes by Martin, Edward A.

The stem of the largest living species rarely exceeds half-an-inch in diameter, whilst that of the calamite attained a thickness of five inches.

From The Story of a Piece of Coal What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes by Martin, Edward A.

Occasionally some of the calamite brakes and forests of Sigillariae and Coniferae were exposed in the flood season, or sometimes, perhaps, by slight elevatory movements to the denuding action of the river or the sea.

From The Student's Elements of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir

Williamson, Professor, on Conifers of the Coal. —, on structure of calamite.

From The Student's Elements of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir

The bark having almost al ways disappeared has left the fluted stem known to us as the calamite.

From The Story of a Piece of Coal What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes by Martin, Edward A.