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Mineral vs Clay - What's the difference?

mineral | clay |

As a noun mineral

is mineral.

As a proper noun clay is

.

mineral

Alternative forms

* minerall (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (geology) Any naturally occurring inorganic material that has a (more or less) definite chemical composition and characteristic physical properties.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author=Lee A. Groat , title=Gemstones , volume=100, issue=2, page=128 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are diamond, ruby and sapphire, emerald and other gem forms of the mineral beryl, chrysoberyl, tanzanite, tsavorite, topaz and jade.}}
  • Any inorganic material (as distinguished from animal or vegetable).
  • Any inorganic element that is essential to nutrition; a dietary mineral.
  • (British) Mineral water.
  • (Ireland, South Africa, informal) A soft drink, particularly a single serve bottle or can.
  • (obsolete) A mine or mineral .
  • * 1599 , , IV. i. 26:
  • O'er whom his very madness, like some ore / Among a mineral of metals base, / Shows itself pure;

    Derived terms

    * rare earth mineral

    Adjective

    (head)
  • of, related to, or containing minerals
  • Derived terms

    * mineral acid * mineral oil * mineral processing * mineral tar * mineral water * mineral wax * mineral weathering * mineral wool

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    clay

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
  • *
  • *:Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local colour) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust.
  • An earth material with ductile qualities.
  • (lb) A tennis court surface.
  • :
  • (lb) The material of the human body.
  • *1611 , Old Testament , King James Version, (w) 10:8-9:
  • Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay .
  • *1611 , Old Testament , King James Version, (w) 64:8:
  • *:But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay , and thou art our potter; and we are the work of thy hand.
  • (lb) A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
  • A clay pigeon.
  • Antonyms

    * (material of the human body) soul, spirit

    Hyponyms

    * kaolin, kaoline * ball clay * fire clay * potter's clay

    Derived terms

    * ball clay * claying * clayen * clayey * claymation * clay pigeon * fire clay * modelling clay * potter's clay

    See also

    * alluvium

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To add clay to, to spread clay onto.
  • (of sugar) To purify using clay.
  • * 1776 , , Book IV, Chapter 7: Of Colonies, Part 2: Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies,
  • They amounted, therefore, to a prohibition, at first of claying' or refining sugar for any foreign market, and at present of ' claying or refining it for the market, which takes off, perhaps, more than nine-tenths of the whole produce.
  • * 1809', Jonathan Williams, '' On the Process of '''Claying Sugar'', in ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society , Volume 6.
  • * 1985 , Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835 , page 200,
  • The Portuguese had mastered the technique of claying sugar, and other European nations tried to learn the secrets from them.

    References

    * Krueger, Dennis (December 1982). "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?" Studio Potter Vol. 11, Number 1.[http://www.studiopotter.org/articles/?art=art0001] (etymology) * * Clay , New Webster Dictionary of English Language, 1980 edition.

    Anagrams

    *