basalt

A hard mafic igneous rock of varied mineral content; volcanic in origin, which makes up much of the Earth's oceanic crust.

Noun

  1. A hard mafic igneous rock of varied mineral content; volcanic in origin, which makes up much of the Earth's oceanic crust.
  2. A type of unglazed pottery.

Origin

From Late Latin basaltes, a misspelling of Latin basanites, from Ancient Greek βασανίτης (basanítēs), from βάσανος (básanos, “touchstone”), from Egyptian bḫn (“a hard stone”), b-x:n-O39

Forms

basalts

Hypernyms

molten rock

Hyponyms

flood basalt

Derived

alkali basalt basaltic basaltiform basaltine basaltoid basaltware metabasalt metabasaltic nonbasalt picrobasalt plateau basalt trachybasalt