ceramic

American  

[suh-ram-ik] / səˈræm ɪk /

adjective

1. of or relating to products made from clay and similar materials, as pottery and brick, or to their manufacture.

   ceramic art.

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noun

1. ceramic material.

ceramic British  

/ sɪˈræmɪk /

noun

1. a hard brittle material made by firing clay and similar substances

2. an object made from such a material

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or made from a ceramic

   this vase is ceramic

2. of or relating to ceramics

   ceramic arts and crafts

ceramic Scientific  

/ sə-răm′ĭk /

1. Any of various hard, brittle, heat- and corrosion-resistant materials made typically of metallic elements combined with oxygen or with carbon, nitrogen, or sulfur. Most ceramics are crystalline and are poor conductors of electricity, though some recently discovered copper-oxide ceramics are superconductors at low temperatures.

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Etymology

Origin of ceramic

1840–50; variant of keramic < Greek keramikós, equivalent to kéram ( os ) potters' clay + -ikos -ic

Example Sentences

She searched among the rubble for some memory of him, finding a ceramic bear he had gifted her years before that bore the message “I love you.”

From Los Angeles Times

To reconstruct that earlier landscape, the research team examined 61 sediment cores taken from inside and around the temple grounds and analyzed tens of thousands of ceramic fragments.

From Science Daily

That defiance includes displaying their fragile ceramics in the aboveground House of Culture, along with Ryabov’s own work, which survived a rocket attack last summer that damaged several buildings across the city.

From The Wall Street Journal

While he remained an advocate for Burslem's ceramics heritage, he said the town could not rely on it for its regeneration and needed to get behind initiatives like so-called "Burslemmy".

From BBC

A tin of homemade hot cocoa mix tucked into a thrifted ceramic mug.

From Salon

Related Words

• brick
• earthenware
• porcelain
• stoneware
• tile