Schist
//ʃɪst// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any of a variety of coarse-grained crystalline metamorphic rocks with a foliated structure that allows easy division into slabs or slates. countable, uncountable
"Although it shows under the microscope traces of the original gabbro structure and of the original gabbro minerals, no one would hesitate from a microscopical examination to class it with the schists."
- 2 any metamorphic rock that can be split into thin layers wordnet
Example
More examples"Although it shows under the microscope traces of the original gabbro structure and of the original gabbro minerals, no one would hesitate from a microscopical examination to class it with the schists."
Etymology
From French schiste, from Latin schistos lapis (“the stone that is easy to split”), from Ancient Greek σχιστός (skhistós, “splittable”), from σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”).
Related phrases
More for "schist"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.