shale
Americannoun
-
shales
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of shale
1740–50; origin uncertain; compare obsolete shale to split (said of stone), to shell, derivative of shale shell, husk, Old English scealu shell, husk; see scale 2
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How does shale compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Vocabulary lists containing shale
Earth Science - Middle School
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Earth Science - High School
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Geology - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The acquired gas fields span the East Texas and Louisiana portions of the Haynesville shale formation, a prolific region that supplies Gulf Coast industrial consumers and LNG export terminals through many pipelines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Then the U.S. shale boom brought in the opposite kind — light sweet crude that expensive refinery equipment doesn’t optimally use.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
De la Espriella’s ideological kinsman, Argentine President Javier Milei, is pushing for more oil output, focusing on his country’s massive Vaca Muerta shale deposit.
From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026
U.S. shale break-even prices are between $60 and $70 a barrel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Behind them the road dropped down the gray shale hill to the clay flats of the valley.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
National Fuel Gas owns roughly 1.2 million acres in the Appalachian Basin, with substantial mineral ownership overlying the Marcellus and Utica shales.
From Barron's ● Jan. 23, 2026
But, this work is promising because it hints at the possibility that certain shales could be a lithium source that doesn't require new mines.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 15, 2024
"The oil shales are running out of Tier 1 inventory," said Bryan Sheffield, founder of energy investors Formentera Partners and Scott Sheffield's son.
From Reuters ● Oct. 11, 2023
Such balls, called siliceous nodules or “Rokycany Balls,” are weathered out of the shales of the Šárka Formation.
From Science Magazine ● Sep. 27, 2023
At these localities the diamonds occur in a serpentinous breccia, filling pipes or 'chimneys,' generally regarded as volcanic ducts, which rise from unknown depths and burst through the surrounding shales.
From The Romance of Industry and Invention by Robert Cochrane
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.
