porphyry

[ pawr-fuh-ree ]

noun,plural por·phy·ries.
  1. a very hard rock, anciently quarried in Egypt, having a dark, purplish-red groundmass containing small crystals of feldspar.

  2. Petrology. any igneous rock containing coarse crystals, as phenocrysts, in a finer-grained groundmass.

Origin of porphyry

1
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 -ite1

Words Nearby porphyry

Other definitions for Porphyry (2 of 2)

Porphyry
[ pawr-fuh-ree ]

noun
  1. Malchus, a.d. c233–c304, Greek philosopher.

Other words from Porphyry

  • Por·phyr·e·an [pawr-feer-ee-uhn], /pɔrˈfɪər i ən/, adjective
  • Por·phyr·i·an, adjective, noun
  • Por·phyr·i·an·ist, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use porphyry in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for porphyry (1 of 2)

porphyry

/ (ˈpɔːfɪrɪ) /


nounplural -ries
  1. any igneous rock with large crystals embedded in a finer groundmass of minerals

  2. obsolete a reddish-purple rock consisting of large crystals of feldspar in a finer groundmass of feldspar, hornblende, etc

Origin of porphyry

1
C14 porfurie, from Late Latin porphyrītēs, from Greek porphuritēs (lithos) purple (stone), from porphuros purple

British Dictionary definitions for Porphyry (2 of 2)

Porphyry

/ (ˈpɔːfɪrɪ) /


noun
  1. original name Malchus. 232–305 ad, Greek Neo-Platonist philosopher, born in Syria; disciple and biographer of Plotinus

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

Scientific definitions for porphyry

porphyry

[ pôrfə-rē ]


  1. An igneous rock containing the large crystals known as phenocrysts embedded in a fine-grained matrix.

Other words from porphyry

  • porphyritic adjective (pôr′fə-rĭtĭk)

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.