Quartz

//k(w)ɔːts// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The most abundant mineral on the earth's surface, of chemical composition silicon dioxide, SiO₂. It occurs in a variety of forms, both crystalline and amorphous. Found in every environment. countable, uncountable

    "The telescope and collimator have each an object-glass consisting of a single lens of quartz 1½ inch diameter and a focal length of 18½ inches for the sodium yellow light, but not more than 16 inches for the highest rays measured."

  2. 2
    a hard glossy mineral consisting of silicon dioxide in crystal form; present in most rocks (especially sandstone and granite); yellow sand is quartz with iron oxide impurities wordnet
  3. 3
    Crystal meth: methamphetamine hydrochloride. slang, uncountable
  4. 4
    colorless glass made of almost pure silica wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
alabasterasphaltcrystallechatelieritemethamphetaminemethamphetamine hydrochloride

Example

More examples

"Rare gems include aquamarine, amethyst, emerald, quartz and ruby."

Etymology

From German Quarz, from Middle High German (Central East German) quarz, twarc, from a West Slavic language [compare Polish twardy (“hard”), Czech tvrdý (“hard”)], from Proto-Slavic *tvьrdъ ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *twerH- (“to enclose, grab”).

Related phrases

alpha quartzbeta quartzclear quartzdrusy quartzfused quartzhoneycomb quartzmilky quartzpure quartzpurple quartzquartz arenitequartz areniticquartz clock

More for "quartz"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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