argillite

American  

[ahr-juh-lahyt] / ˈɑr dʒəˌlaɪt /

noun

1. any compact sedimentary rock composed mainly of clay materials; clay stone.

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argillite British  

/ ˈɑːdʒɪˌlaɪt, ˌɑːdʒɪˈlɪtɪk /

noun

1. any argillaceous rock, esp a hardened mudstone

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argillite Scientific  

/ är′jə-līt′ /

1. A highly compacted sedimentary or slightly metamorphic rock consisting primarily of particles of clay or silt. Argillite differs from mudstone in that it does not have the same fine laminations, and from shale and slate in that it is not fissile.

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Other Word Forms

• argillitic adjective

Etymology

Origin of argillite

1785–95; < Latin argill ( a ) argil + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

Winding paths of decomposed granite descend into the garden, where loosely arranged vertical slabs of argillite rock — a “living wall” — create pockets for vegetation to grow and animals to inhabit.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 11, 2022

Their Wall Street curled out of sight into a jumbled black terminus of precariously perched argillite boulders and other worthless rock till feeding the McKinley River.

From The Guardian • Nov. 8, 2018

Slate is, as we know, merely a variety of argillite.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 1157, March 5, 1898 by Various

The rocks of the mountains, owing to their resistant character, are not worn away as rapidly as the plains formations with the result that great thicknesses of limestone and argillite tower above the plains.

From Glacier National Park [Montana] by Interior, United States Dept. of the

These argillite points and scrapers seem to belong to the palæolithic man toward the end of his "age," manifesting a higher stage of culture reached by gradual improvement.

From Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 by Various