the hard substance, formed of mineral matter, of which rocks consist.
a rock or particular piece or kind of rock, as a boulder or piece of agate.
a piece of rock quarried and worked into a specific size and shape for a particular purpose: building stone.
paving stone;
building stone.
a small piece of rock, as a pebble.
Chiefly British. one of various units of weight, especially the British unit equivalent to 14 pounds (6.4 kilograms).
something resembling a small piece of rock in size, shape, or hardness.
any small, hard seed, as of a date; pit.
Botany. the hard endocarp of a drupe, as of a peach.
Pathology. a calculous concretion in the body, as in the kidney, gallbladder, or urinary bladder.
a gravestone or tombstone.
Don’t even think about using that stone until you’ve got your safety glasses on.
The gristmill’s original pair of stones were made from volcanic lava deposits in southern Italy.
With many verified reports of stones as large as 6 inches in diameter, we can tell you this was no ordinary hailstorm.
Friction between the stone and the surface of the ice is controlled by many parameters, including velocity.
Building Trades. any of various artificial materials imitating cut stone or rubble.
Printing. a table with a smooth surface, formerly made of stone, on which page forms are composed.
(in lithography) any surface on which an artist draws or etches a picture or design from which a lithograph is made.
a playing piece in the game of dominoes, checkers, or backgammon.
Slang: Vulgar. Usually stones testes.
to throw stones at; drive by pelting with stones.
to put to death by pelting with stones.
to provide, fit, pave, line, face or fortify with stones.
to rub (something) with or on a stone, as to sharpen, polish, or smooth.
to remove stones from, as fruit.
Obsolete. to make insensitive or unfeeling.
cast the first stone, to be the first to condemn or blame a wrongdoer; be hasty in one's judgment.
What right has she to cast the first stone?
set in stone, to put (something) in final form; finalize so as to prevent change or reversal: Also set / cast in concrete
These schematics for the library renovation are only proposals—nothing yet is set in stone.
leave no stone unturned, to exhaust every possibility in attempting to achieve one's goal; spare no effort.
We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to find the culprit.
Edward Durell 1902–78, U.S. architect.
Harlan Fiske 1872–1946, U.S. jurist: chief justice of the U.S. 1941–46.
Irving, 1903–1989, U.S. author.
I(sidor) F(einstein) Izzy, 1907–1989, U.S. political journalist.
Lucy, 1818–93, U.S. suffragist (wife of Henry Brown Blackwell).
the hard compact nonmetallic material of which rocks are made
a small lump of rock; pebble
jewellery short for gemstone
a piece of rock designed or shaped for some particular purpose
( in combination )
gravestone
millstone
something that resembles a stone
( in combination )
hailstone
the woody central part of such fruits as the peach and plum, that contains the seed; endocarp
any similar hard part of a fruit, such as the stony seed of a date
a unit of weight, used esp to express human body weight, equal to 14 pounds or 6.350 kilograms
Also called: granite. the rounded heavy mass of granite or iron used in the game of curling
pathol a nontechnical name for calculus
printing a table with a very flat iron or stone surface upon which hot-metal pages are composed into formes; imposition table
rare (in certain games) a piece or man
any of various dull grey colours
( as adjective )
stone paint
(modifier) relating to or made of stone
a stone house
(modifier) made of stoneware
a stone jar
cast aspersions upon
an obdurate or unemotional nature
to do everything possible to achieve an end
to throw stones at, esp to kill
to remove the stones from
to furnish or provide with stones
slang an expression of surprise, dismay, etc
Oliver. born 1946, US film director and screenwriter: his films include Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991), Nixon (1995), Alexander (2004), and World Trade Center (2006)
Sharon. born 1958, US film actress: her films include Basic Instinct (1991), Casino (1995), and Cold Creek Manor (2003)
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun stan, sto(o)n, Old English stān; cognate with Dutch steen, German Stein, Old Norse steinn, Gothic stains; akin to Greek stī́a “pebble,” Latin stīria “icicle”; the verb, adjective, and adverb are derivative of the noun
Another name for a stone, or hard mineral lump, is a rock. If you turn over a large stone in the forest, you might find a whole colony of worms, beetles, and other creepy-crawlies living underneath. Stones are commonly used to build walls and buildings. Sculptures are carved from stone, and patios and garden walls are constructed of individual stones. Someone who seems to have "turned to stone" becomes as unmoving and unemotional as a piece of rock. Sometimes a valuable gem is colloquially called a stone, and the hard pit in a plum or apricot is another kind of stone. A stone is also a unit of measuring weight in Britain—equal to 14 pounds.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
LIsting image reveal private stone steps that lead down to the beach, where a small cabana has been stationed—with a private gate keeping out any unwanted visitor.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
These fragments provided strong evidence that the bone had been used to strike, reshape and maintain stone tools on multiple occasions.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
A police sign hangs above the entrance, while the pavement still bears a memorial stone with the inscription: "For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn."
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
"I want to challenge them and some of the assumptions they've made around Cantley, to make sure that every stone has been turned over to see whether this plant can be saved."
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
He struck the stone against the rim of his monocle, raining sparks over the hearth kindling—once, twice, three times, until the sparks nestled into the tinder and began to grow into flames.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
The Clowns are a revival of a 1940s and 1950s barnstorming Negro League team that included Toni Stone, the first woman to play in a professional men’s baseball league.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026
Considering that his bandmates included Rod Stewart and future Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, their set would have likely been incandescent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Kaye was writing about music — for publications like Rock Scene, Crawdaddy and Rolling Stone — when the discipline was still nascent.
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026
The results confirmed that the bison dates to the Upper Paleolithic, the later portion of the Old Stone Age when anatomically modern humans created many of Europe's most famous cave paintings.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
Dylan pauses Sorcerer’s Stone, which, wow, dude never pauses a game, but he’s pausing a movie we’ve seen over a dozen times.
From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
They come in stone- and black-coloured leather or tan suede.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 12, 2020
A digital transfer mired in grays and blues will muddy the sepia-seeping proceedings but not enough to appreciate the director’s vision of the stone- and iron-laden, antiquated era.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 10, 2015
They stopped at the center of camp, where two wide stone- paved roads met at a T. A street sign labeled the road to the main gates as via praetoria.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
She threw the stone- but not at me. skimming bouncing I threw the stone— over the water skipping swift and merry twice over the water.
From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz
Then stone- grind the kernels into masa, a light, slightly sticky paste with a distinct maize fragrance.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Near the base of a column atop which Saint Simeon Stylites once perched, scattered stones lay bare the damage inflicted on the surrounding Byzantine monastery in northern Syria by war, looting and rampant illegal excavations.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
Even after the researchers added pyrite and calcite crystals, each with different shapes from quartz, the chimpanzees still recognized and selected the crystal type stones.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
That includes Rabban Aalam, who loads crushed stones for transport to construction sites on the outskirts of New Delhi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
“All we can do is pull out stones and rubble with our hands. We need help. People are very afraid.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
We went on down the path with Patch pulling on my hand, veering this way and that to pick up stones for his collection.
From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff
Muslim faithful ritually stoned the devil on Wednesday in the climactic ceremony of a hajj pilgrimage held in intense heat and against the backdrop of a war that has plunged the wealthy Gulf into crisis.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
The first Sunday service after the arrests, streamed from pastors outside the mainland, included a meditation on the biblical account of Stephen, the first-century disciple stoned to death for his faith.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
“I have been convicted and sacrificed and crucified and stoned without a trial and without the option to defend myself.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2025
The costumes are shining because the seamstress stoned them.
From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2025
The last rolling thunder of the avalanche stoned down about his ears, not touching him.
From "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
McNish says virginity is a man-made myth created by those in power, in times that "also spoke positively of slavery and stoning".
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Jackson’s lottery stoning takes place on a sunny June day, in contrast to the apocalyptic storm’s nighttime arrival on “Widow’s Bay,” forcing everyone into an underground shelter.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026
They then spent the night under the stars at Muzdalifah, halfway between Arafat and Mina, where they collected pebbles for the stoning.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
What’s funny about the inspiration is that I had a whole ’nother outfit planned, and with the help of a friend, she’s stoning some things for me, but that didn’t come through today.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2025
My mother left China in the winter of 1939, almost six months after the stoning, and arrived in New York Harbor in January, 1940.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
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.
