diopside

[dahy-op-sahyd, -sid]

noun

Mineralogy.

1. a monoclinic pyroxene mineral, calcium magnesium silicate, CaMg(SiO3 ) 2 , occurring in various colors, usually in crystals.

diopside

/ -sɪd, daɪˈɒpsaɪd /

noun

1. a colourless or pale-green pyroxene mineral consisting of calcium magnesium silicate in monoclinic crystalline form: used as a gemstone. Formula: CaMgSi 2 O 6

diopside

1. A light green, monoclinic variety of pyroxene, used as a gemstone and as a refractory material. Chemical formula: CaMgSi ₂ O ₆ .

Word History and Origins

Origin of diopside¹

1800–10; di- ³ + Greek óps(is) appearance + -ide ( def. )

Word History and Origins

Origin of diopside¹

C19: from _di- ² + Greek opsis sight, appearance + _-ide

Example Sentences

Some keepsakes were harder to reproduce than others, though, including the uniquely shaped uncut mineral-green diopside pendant encased in a heavy gold setting that her father gave to her mother as an engagement present in 1969.

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Greek jewelry designer Ileana Makri's graceful multi-shaped branch ear cuff is made of 18-karat gold set with round yellow sapphire, square rhodolite and oval chrome diopside with pear-shaped orange sapphire.

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The purer beds recrystallize as marbles, but where there has been originally an admixture of sand or clay lime-bearing silicates are formed, such as diopside, epidote, garnet, sphene, vesuvianite, scapolite; with these phlogopite, various felspars, pyrites, quartz and actinolite often occur.

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Diopside, dī-op′sid, n. a grayish and readily cleavable variety of pyroxene.

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The augite is mostly a variety of diopside and is only occasionally idiomorphic.

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