Peridotite
//pəˈɹɪd.əˌtaɪt// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A rock consisting of small crystals of olivine, pyroxene and hornblende; the major constituent of the Earth's mantle. countable, uncountable
"Varieties of peridotite are distinguished by their mineral composition; for example, dunite is a peridotite which is virtually all olivine, and a dense, dark green in colour."
- 2 a dark coarse-grained igneous rock consisting principally of olivine wordnet
Example
More examples"Varieties of peridotite are distinguished by their mineral composition; for example, dunite is a peridotite which is virtually all olivine, and a dense, dark green in colour."
Etymology
From peridot + -ite.
More for "peridotite"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.