melaphyre
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of melaphyre
C19: via French from Greek melas black + ( por ) phura purple
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.
In China, at the close of the period, there were enormous eruptions of melaphyre, porphyrite and quartz-porphyry.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 3 "Capefigue" to "Carneades" by Various
Below this were found chipped flints, an adze of melaphyre, and a layer of boulders, sand, and clay, brought down by the ice from the higher valley.
From English Villages by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield
The rocks consist chiefly of basalt, dolerite, melaphyre and felstone.
From Volcanoes: Past and Present by Edward Hull
The Rowley Hills in Staffordshire, commonly known as Rowley Ragstone, are melaphyre.
From The Student's Elements of Geology by Sir Charles Lyell
In the older rocks, basalt has often undergone decomposition into melaphyre; and amongst the metamorphic rocks it has been changed into diorite or hornblende rock; the augite having been converted into hornblende.
From Volcanoes: Past and Present by Edward Hull
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.
