calcareous
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of calcareous
1670–80; variant of calcarious < Latin calcārius of lime; see calx, -ary ( def. )
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.
Many calcareous plankton species that normally sink to the ocean floor disappeared during the extinction event.
From Science Daily • Mar. 15, 2026
Among other things, the researchers determined the isotopic and elemental composition of the calcareous shells of plankton.
From Science Daily • Nov. 3, 2023
Though I had to swallow some disappointment to see it, Abbé’s fumaroles, built up over millennia by the accretion of calcareous mineral deposits, still presented an astonishing panorama.
From New York Times • Apr. 8, 2019
These are the familiar coral reefs, built by tiny colonial animals that farm symbiotic algae inside their calcareous skeletons and form mounds, branches, fingers, plates, and encrustations.
From Science Magazine • Mar. 2, 2017
“He had to move back,” Yossarian argued in a vain effort to cheer up the glum, barrel-chested Indian, whose well-knit sorrel-red face had degenerated rapidly into a dilapidated, calcareous gray.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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.
