greensand

American  

[green-sand] / ˈgrinˌsænd /

noun

1. a sandstone containing much glauconite, which gives it a greenish hue.

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greensand British  

/ ˈɡriːnˌsænd /

noun

1. an olive-green sandstone consisting mainly of quartz and glauconite

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Etymology

Origin of greensand

First recorded in 1790–1800; green + sand

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

greensand

Pockets of chalk, clay and greensand encourage an exuberant spread of botanical life.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026

Here and there along the Green gush out bright fountains of delicious water from artesian wells driven into the "greensand," some 200 feet below the surface.

From Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely by Edward Conybeare

The rivers “then ran down the slopes of the dome, and as the chalk and greensand gradually weathered back ... deepened and deepened their valleys, and thus were enabled to keep their original course.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 6 "Dodwell" to "Drama" by Various

The Pyrenees and Appennines are, therefore, more modern than the limestone of Jura, and the greensand which they have raised, and more ancient than the tertiary strata and the diluvium.

From The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 by Robert Walsh

These breaching valleys, which are characteristic of the South Downs also, “carry us back to a time when the greensand and chalk were continued across, or almost across, the Weald in a great dome.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 6 "Dodwell" to "Drama" by Various

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