trachyte

[ trey-kahyt, trak-ahyt ]

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.

trachyte

/ ˈtrækɪˌtɔɪd; ˈtræ-; ˈtreɪ-; ˈtreɪkaɪt /

noun

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

trachyte

/ 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.

Derived Forms

• trachytoid, adjective

Other Words From

• tra·chyt·ic [tr, uh, -, kit, -ik], trach·y·toid [trak, -i-toid, trey, -ki-], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of trachyte¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of trachyte¹

C19: from French, from Greek trakhutēs , from trakhus rough

Example Sentences

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

In 2018, the city replaced some of the slabs of glass with trachyte, but during the pandemic, when national television filmed people walking over the bridge to illustrate the return to normalcy after a lockdown, it inevitably caught someone slipping.

From New York Times

An eruptive rock allied to trachyte, consisting essentially of a triclinic feldspar, with pyroxene, hornblende, or hypersthene.

From Project Gutenberg

Amphibole is a constituent of many crystalline rocks, as syenite, diorite, most varieties of trachyte, etc.

From Project Gutenberg

Some say it was more than ten centuries before Christ's birth that the bold Greeks of Eubœa came up this coast, where already their kinsmen were known as traders, and having settled first on Ischia moved to the opposite mainland, and built their acropolis upon a crag of trachyte which overhung the sea.

From Project Gutenberg