trachyte

American  

[tray-kahyt, trak-ahyt] / ˈtreɪ kaɪt, ˈtræk aɪt /

noun

1. a fine-grained volcanic rock consisting essentially of alkali feldspar and one or more subordinate minerals, as hornblende or mica: the extrusive equivalent of syenite.

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trachyte British  

/ ˈtreɪkaɪt, ˈtræ-, ˈtreɪ- /

noun

1. a light-coloured fine-grained volcanic rock of rough texture consisting of feldspars with small amounts of pyroxene or amphibole

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trachyte Scientific  

/ trā′kīt′,trăk′īt′ /

1. A light-colored, fine-grained igneous rock consisting primarily of alkali feldspar together with some mafic minerals, especially hornblende. Unlike most igneous rocks, trachyte has little or no quartz. Trachyte is the fine-grained equivalent of syenite.

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Other Word Forms

• trachytic
  adjective
• trachytoid
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of trachyte

1815–25; < French < Greek trāchýtēs roughness, equivalent to trāchý ( s ) rough + -tēs noun suffix

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

trachyte

Now, after years of protests and problems, the city has decided to replace the translucent glass with less slippery — and less glamorous — trachyte stone.

From New York Times ● Jan. 2, 2022

And again one says architecturally speaking of it: "It is a polygonous pyramid of dark trachyte, with gray cupulas on jutting walls and projecting cornices, a forest of pinnacles."

From Flash-lights from the Seven Seas by Francis John McConnell

The islands of Lipari are formed of beds of tuff, penetrated by numerous dykes of lava, from which uprise two or three craters, formed of pumice and obsidian passing into trachyte.

From Volcanoes: Past and Present by Edward Hull

The bastion consists, like the semicircular escarpment of Somma turned towards Vesuvius, of precipitous cliffs, composed of trachyte, basalt, coarse conglomerates, and tuffs, traversed by volcanic dikes, mostly vertical, and of 440 basalt.

From Principles of Geology or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology by Sir Charles Lyell

In the south of the island there are sills and dykes of felsite, quartz-porphyry, rhyolite, trachyte and pitchstone.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 6 "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of" by Various

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