Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

molybdenite

[muh-lib-duh-nahyt]
noun
  1. a soft, graphitelike mineral, molybdenum sulfide, MoS2, occurring in foliated masses or scales: the principal ore of molybdenum.
Show More

Origin of molybdenite

1790–1800; obsolete molybden(a) molybdenum + -ite1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for molybdenite

Historical Examples of molybdenite

  • The larger part of the world's production is from the molybdenite ores.

    The Economic Aspect of Geology

    C. K. Leith

  • The chief ore minerals are molybdenite (molybdenum sulphide) and wulfenite (lead molybdate).

  • In molybdenite deposits secondary concentration has not been important.

  • Wulfenite is rather common in the upper oxidized zone of deposits which contain lead minerals and molybdenite.

  • In the deposits of New South Wales they are found associated with molybdenite in quartz gangue, in pipe-like deposits in granite.

British Dictionary definitions for molybdenite

molybdenite

noun
  1. a soft grey mineral consisting of molybdenum sulphide in hexagonal crystalline form with rhenium as an impurity: the main source of molybdenum and rhenium. Formula: MoS 2
Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
molybdenite in Science

molybdenite

[mə-lĭb′də-nīt′]
  1. A soft, lead-gray hexagonal mineral that is the principal ore of molybdenum. It occurs as sheetlike masses in pegmatites and in areas where contact metamorphism has taken place. Chemical formula: MoS2.
Show More
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.