tectonic

American  

[tek-ton-ik] / tɛkˈtɒn ɪk /

adjective

1. of or relating to building or construction; constructive; architectural.

2. Geology.

   1. pertaining to the structure of the earth's crust.

   2. referring to the forces or conditions within the earth that cause movements of the crust.

   3. designating the results of such movements.

      tectonic valleys.

---

tectonic British  

/ tɛkˈtɒnɪk /

adjective

1. denoting or relating to construction or building

2. geology

   1. (of landforms, rock masses, etc) resulting from distortion of the earth's crust due to forces within it

   2. (of processes, movements, etc) occurring within the earth's crust and causing structural deformation

---

tectonic Scientific  

/ tĕk-tŏn′ĭk /

1. Relating to the forces involved in plate tectonics or the structural features resulting from them.

---

Other Word Forms

• tectonically adverb

Etymology

Origin of tectonic

1650–60; < Late Latin tectonicus < Greek tektonikós pertaining to construction, equivalent to tekton- (stem of téktōn ) carpenter + -ikos -ic

Example Sentences

Instead, critics selected music that shifted the tectonic plates of pop...

From BBC

Each configuration seems contingent, not fixed, as if in a process of perpetual transition driven by some invisible force—tectonic restlessness or a growth hormone, say.

From The Wall Street Journal

However, our drilling efforts recovered the first cores of this material after it has spent tens of millions of years being rafted across the seafloor as Earth's tectonic plates spread apart.

From Science Daily

These events were linked to the Lee-Lincoln fault, a tectonic feature that cuts through the valley floor.

From Science Daily

Subduction: A tectonic process in which one piece of Earth's crust sinks beneath another and moves downward into the mantle.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• anatomical
• architectural
• basic
• constitutional
• skeletal