molybdenite

American  

[muh-lib-duh-nahyt] / məˈlɪb dəˌnaɪt /

noun

1. a soft, graphitelike mineral, molybdenum sulfide, MoS 2 , occurring in foliated masses or scales: the principal ore of molybdenum.

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molybdenite British  

/ mɒˈlɪbdɪˌnaɪt /

noun

1. a soft grey mineral consisting of molybdenum sulphide in hexagonal crystalline form with rhenium as an impurity: the main source of molybdenum and rhenium. Formula: MoS 2

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molybdenite Scientific  

/ mə-lĭb′də-nīt′ /

1. A soft, lead-gray hexagonal mineral that is the principal ore of molybdenum. It occurs as sheetlike masses in pegmatites and in areas where contact metamorphism has taken place. Chemical formula: MoS ₂ .

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Etymology

Origin of molybdenite

1790–1800; obsolete molybden(a) molybdenum + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

It seemed a cinch that neither Russia nor Germany would soon receive those particular tons of copper, tin, antimony, wolframite, molybdenite.

From Time Magazine Archive

She had 4,000 tons of U. S. copper and a lot of molybdenite aboard, cleared from Manzanillo on Mexico's west coast and San Pedro, Calif. She, too, was bound for Vladivostok.

From Time Magazine Archive

From her upper crust come such delights of found art as miniature Matterhorns of icy blue molybdenite, spiky flowers of dendritic copper, peaceful crystal groupings of aquamarine beryl and fleshy green clumps of concretionary malachite.

From Time Magazine Archive

In Washington, mining officials happily announced that a "large deposit" of molybdenite had been discovered about 400 miles northwest of Quebec.

From Time Magazine Archive

The labels apprise me of their contents: molybdenite of ammonia, chloride of antimony, permanganate of potash and ever so many other strange terms.

From The Life of the fly; with which are interspersed some chapters of autobiography by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander