A crystalline, granular rock, consisting of quartz, feldspar, and mica, and usually of a whitish, grayish, or flesh-red color. It differs from gneiss in not having the mica in planes, and therefore in being destitute of a schistose structure. [1913 Webster]

" Varieties containing hornblende are common. See also the Note under Mica." [1913 Webster]

Gneissoid granite, granite in which the mica has traces of a regular arrangement. -- Graphic granite, granite consisting of quartz and feldspar without mica, and having the quartz crystals so arranged in the transverse section like oriental characters. -- Porphyritic granite, granite containing feldspar in distinct crystals. -- Hornblende granite, or Syenitic granite, granite containing hornblende as well as mica, or, according to some authorities hornblende replacing the mica. -- Granite ware. (a) A kind of stoneware. (b) A Kind of ironware, coated with an enamel resembling granite.

top

OXFORD DICTIONARY

granite, n.
1 a granular crystalline igneous rock of quartz, mica, feldspar, etc., used for building.
2 a determined or resolute quality, attitude, etc.

Derivative

granitic adj. granitoid adj. & n.

Etymology

It. granito, lit. grained f. grano f. L granum GRAIN

top

THESAURUS

granite

aa, abyssal rock, adamant, basalt, bedrock, block lava, bone, brash, breccia, brick, cement, concrete, conglomerate, crag, diamond, druid stone, festooned pahoehoe, flint, gneiss, heart of oak, igneous rock, iron, lava, limestone, living rock, magma, mantlerock, marble, metamorphic rock, monolith, nails, oak, pahoehoe, pillow lava, porphyry, pudding stone, regolith, rock, ropy lava, rubble, rubblestone, sandstone, sarsen, schist, scoria, scree, sedimentary rock, shelly pahoehoe, steel, stone, talus, tufa, tuff

top

ROGET THESAURUS

granite

Hardness

N hardness, rigidity, renitence, renitency, inflexibility, temper, callosity, durity, induration, petrifaction, lapidification, lapidescence, vitrification, ossification, crystallization, stone, pebble, flint, marble, rock, fossil, crag, crystal, quartz, granite, adamant, bone, cartilage, hardware, heart of oak, block, board, deal board, iron, steel, cast iron, decarbonized iron, wrought iron, nail, brick, concrete, cement, hard, rigid, stubborn, stiff, firm, starch, starched, stark, unbending, unlimber, unyielding, inflexible, tense, indurate, indurated, gritty, proof, adamant, adamantine, adamantean, concrete, stony, granitic, calculous, lithic, vitreous, horny, corneous, bony, osseous, ossific, cartilaginous, hard as a rock, stiff as buckram, stiff as a poker, stiff as starch, stiff as as board.

For further exploring for "granite" in Webster Dictionary Online