a very hard rock, anciently quarried in Egypt, having a dark, purplish-red groundmass containing small crystals of feldspar.
Petrology. any igneous rock containing coarse crystals, as phenocrysts, in a finer-grained groundmass.
any igneous rock with large crystals embedded in a finer groundmass of minerals
obsolete a reddish-purple rock consisting of large crystals of feldspar in a finer groundmass of feldspar, hornblende, etc
1350–1400; Middle English porfurie, porfirie < Medieval Latin porphyreum, alteration of Latin porphyrītēs < Greek porphyrī́tēs porphyry, short for porphyrī́tēs líthos porphyritic (i.e., purplish) stone, equivalent to pórphyr ( os ) purple + -ītēs; see -ite 1
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The team's ongoing research shows similar results for identifying porphyry copper deposits.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2023
It's a square of about 7.5 metres, with a design of interlocking patterns, using inlaid stones, such as purple-coloured porphyry and yellow limestone.
From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2023
The attractions here include a massive ten-sided table with a porphyry top and an elaborate base adorned with large gilt bronze masks of the four seasons.
From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2018
Ague, J. J. & Brimhall, G. H. Geochemical modeling of steady state fluid flow and chemical reaction during supergene enrichment of porphyry copper deposits.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
Like the stadium, most were being clad with natural stone, all of it German—more limestone from Franconia, basalt from the Eifel hills, granite and marble from Silesia, travertine from Thuringia, porphyry from Saxony.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Working with Porphyry Press, a micropublisher based in McCarthy, I spent the past few years researching and writing a history of that rambunctious half-century.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 8, 2022
Porphyry deposits are typically the largest mines on Earth.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
Porphyry deposits are the most important source of copper and molybdenum in British Columbia, the western United States, and Central and South America.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Porphyry of Tyre, who lived in the 3rd century, may be called the founder of both Arabian and Christian scholastics.
From Science and Medieval Thought The Harveian Oration Delivered Before the Royal College of Physicians, October 18, 1900 by Allbutt, Sir Thomas Clifford
Porphyry, after years of discipline, once, and but once.621 The process of reasoning is here not only useless, but pernicious.
From History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 1 of 2) by Lecky, William Edward Hartpole
Against its nucleus of very ancient granites and porphyries the Ozark series of magnesian limestone was laid down.
From Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills by Owen, Luella Agnes
These deposits contain copper minerals, usually in the marginal portions of acid porphyries, in many irregular, closely spaced veins, and in minute seams and spots disseminated through the mass of the rock.
From The Economic Aspect of Geology by Leith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)
Masses of euritic and porphyritic rocks intersect the granites, and a distinct formation of porphyries crowns Monte Cinto, Vagliorba, and Pertusato, the highest summits of the Niolo, covering the granite.
From Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. by Forester, Thomas
It was at this epoch that the rocks called feldspars, syenites, and porphyries appeared.
From A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Verne, Jules
These descriptions denote a range of granite, the rock which forms the ground-floor of the Sierra Leone peninsula and the Gold Coast, possibly varied by syenites and porphyries.
From To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II A Personal Narrative by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
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.
