Laterite

//ˈlatəɹʌɪt// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A red hard or gravel-like soil or subsoil formed in the tropics that has been leached of soluble minerals leaving insoluble iron and aluminium oxides and hydroxides; used to make bricks and roads. countable, uncountable

    "Although the track is ballasted, it does not prevent clouds of reddish dust from the laterite soil blowing about when the train is in motion; after a journey with the windows open a bath is a necessity!"

  2. 2
    a red soil produced by rock decay; contains insoluble deposits of ferric and aluminum oxides wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
murrammurram

Example

More examples

"Although the track is ballasted, it does not prevent clouds of reddish dust from the laterite soil blowing about when the train is in motion; after a journey with the windows open a bath is a necessity!"

Etymology

From Latin later (“brick”) + -ite.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.