phonolite

American  

[fohn-l-ahyt] / ˈfoʊn lˌaɪt /

noun

1. a fine-grained volcanic rock composed chiefly of alkali feldspar and nepheline, some varieties of which split into pieces that ring on being struck.

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phonolite British  

/ ˌfəʊnəˈlɪtɪk, ˈfəʊnəˌlaɪt /

noun

1. a fine-grained volcanic igneous rock consisting of alkaline feldspars and nepheline

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Other Word Forms

• phonolitic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of phonolite

1820–30; < French < German Phonolith. See phono-, -lite

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

phonolite

XAS determination of the Fe local environment and oxidation state in phonolite glasses.

From Nature ● Dec. 12, 2017

The rocks are lavas and ashes, chiefly of andesitic or basaltic composition, but rhyolites and trachytes also occur, and phonolite has been met with in one or two places.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 6 "Celtes, Konrad" to "Ceramics" by Various

Not far off is a cave, a lava-bubble, in which the natives used to live when they came up here to quarry a very hard adjacent phonolite for their axes and other tools. 

From The Hawaiian Archipelago by Bird, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy)

It is surrounded by pyroxenic amygdaloid; it would no doubt be seen below, issuing immediately from gneiss-granite, like the phonolite of Biliner Stein, in Bohemia, which contains fragments of gneiss embedded in its mass.

From Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3 by Humboldt, Alexander von

It is composed of phonolite, divided in one part into great curved laminae, in another, into angular concretionary balls, and in a third part into outwardly radiating columns.

From Volcanic Islands by Darwin, Charles