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
Another type of deposit which draws on heated water from magma is a porphyry deposit.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
Take Granary Square, a bold and well-considered space, but paved in tasteful porphyry.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2014
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
Justin has preserved the tradition that Mithras was born in a cave or petra, and Porphyry asserts that his rites were observed in caves representing the vault of the heavens.
From The Eliminator; or, Skeleton Keys to Sacerdotal Secrets by Westbrook, Richard B.
Yet, even in Pausanias, in the second century of the Christian era, and still more in Plutarch and Porphyry, there remains an awful acquiescence in such wild dogmas and sacred traditions as antiquity handed down.
From Myth, Ritual And Religion, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Lang, Andrew
A new stall, a reredos, the choir repaved, rich marbles and porphyries used, and stained glass put up mainly by Clayton and Bell, were the chief items of restoration.
From Cathedral Cities of England by Gilbert, George
These are overlaid by sandstones, slates and limestones, alternating with porphyries and porphyrites sometimes in the form of sheets, sometimes as breccias and conglomerates.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 6 "Cockaigne" to "Columbus, Christopher" by Various
In those days the rocks which are now the very bones and sinews of our mother Earth—her granites, her porphyries, her basalts, her syenites—were melted into a liquid mass.
From Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky by Holden, Edward Singleton
Gneiss, he thinks, resulted from the detritus of granitic rocks, by means of an inappreciable cement, and formed in a way analogous to that of the porphyries.
From Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution His Life and Work by Packard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
D'Orbigny considers the porphyries of the Andes to have been ejected at the close of the cretaceous period, and formed the first relief of the Cordillera.
From The Andes and the Amazon Across the Continent of South America by Orton, James
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.
