chalcedony

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin chalcēdōnius, from Ancient Greek χαλκηδόνιος (khalkēdónios), from Ancient Greek χαλκηδών (khalkēdṓn), cognate to Arabic كَرْكَنْد (karkand).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kælˈsɛd.ə.ni/, /ˈkæl.səˌdoʊ.ni/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

A cut and polished chalcedony geode.

chalcedony (countable and uncountable, plural chalcedonies)

1. A form of fine-grained quartz that is nearly transparent or has a milky translucence; it fractures conchoidally.
   • 2012 March, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 June 2012, page 128:

     Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)

Synonyms

• chalcedonite

Derived terms

• chalcedoneous
• chalcedonic

Related terms

• calcedon

Translations

form of fine-grained quartz

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: քաղկեդոն (hy) (kʻaġkedon)
• Basque: kaltzedonia
• Catalan: calcedònia f
• Cherokee: ᎧᎵᏏᏙᏂ (kalisidoni)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 玉髓 (zh) (yùsuǐ), 石髓 (zh) (shísuǐ)

• Czech: chalcedon
• Estonian: kaltsedon
• Farefare: kalkedoni, kalkedon, kalkedonio
• Finnish: kalsedoni (fi)
• French: calcédoine (fr) f
• German: Chalcedon
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: χαλκηδών m (khalkēdṓn)

• Hebrew: כלקדון (he)
• Ido: kalcedono (io)
• Indonesian: kalsedon (id)
• Irish: cailceadón m
• Italian: calcedonio f
• Japanese: 玉髄 (ja) (ぎょくずい, gyokuzui)
• Korean: 옥수 (oksu)
• Latvian: halcedons
• Lithuanian: chalcedonas
• Macedonian: калцедо́н m (kalcedón)
• Maori: karakeroni
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kalsedon n

  Nynorsk: kalsedon n

• Persian: کرکهان (karkahân)
• Polish: chalcedon (pl) m
• Portuguese: calcedônia (pt) f
• Russian: халцедо́н (ru) m (xalcedón)
• Slovak: chalcedón (sk)
• Spanish: calcedonia (es) f
• Sundanese: kalsedon
• Swahili: kalkedoni
• Swedish: kalcedon (sv)
• Tagalog: kalsedonya
• Thai: แคลเซโดนี
• Turkish: kalsedon
• Ukrainian: халцедон (xalcedon)
• Vietnamese: chan-xe-đon
• Welsh: calsedon m

See also

• (noun: types of minerals) agate, chert, flint, moganite
• (adjective) conchoidal
• (adverb) conchoidally
• (noun) break, fracture, flake, shatter
• (verb) knapp, break, fracture, flake, shatter

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2025) “Chalcedony”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “chalcedony”, in Mindat.org‎^[2], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2025.