granite

See also: Granite and granité

English

Etymology

From French granit (“granite”), from Italian granito (“granite”), from granire (“to granulate”), from grano (“grain”), from Latin grānum (“grain”). Compare granita.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹæn.ɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (rare) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹæn.aɪt/
• Rhymes: -ænɪt

Noun

granite (countable and uncountable, plural granites)

1. (petrology) A group of igneous and plutonic rocks composed primarily of feldspar and quartz. Usually contains one or more dark minerals, which may be mica, pyroxene, or amphibole. Granite is quarried for building stone, road gravel, decorative stone, and tombstones. Common colors are gray, white, pink, and yellow-brown.
2. (uncountable, figurative) Toughness; the quality of having a thick skin or being rough.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […] ? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?

   • 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1]:

     The neighbor is eventually able to sell her home despite Homer’s pants-less affronts to propriety and decency and Bart falls deeply and instantly for one of its new inhabitants, a tough but charming and funny tomboy girl named Laura (voiced by Sara Gilbert) with just the right combination of toughness and sweetness, granite and honey.

Hyponyms

• (rock): syenite

Derived terms

• bite on granite
• cumulogranite
• granite blue
• Granite City
• Granite County
• Granite Falls
• granitelike
• granite poison
• Graniteville
• graniteware
• granitic
• granitification
• granitiform
• granitite
• granitization
• granitize
• granitized
• granitoid
• granodiorite
• granolith
• microgranite
• monzogranite
• pregranitic
• take for granite

 

Translations

type of rock

• Arabic: صَوَّان m (ṣawwān), غْرَانِيت m (ḡrānīt)

  Hijazi Arabic: قرانيت m (grānīt)

• Armenian: գրանիտ (hy) (granit)
• Azerbaijani: qranit (az)
• Basque: granito
• Belarusian: грані́т m (hranít)
• Bulgarian: грани́т (bg) m (granít)
• Burmese: နှမ်းဖတ်ကျောက် (my) (hnam:hpatkyauk)
• Catalan: granit m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 花崗石／花岗石 (zh) (huāgāngshí), 花崗岩／花岗岩 (zh) (huāgāngyán),

• Czech: žula (cs) f
• Danish: granit (da) c
• Dutch: graniet (nl) f
• Egyptian: (mꜣṯ)
• Esperanto: granito (eo)
• Estonian: graniit
• Finnish: graniitti (fi)
• French: granite (fr) m (specific/geological), granit (fr) m (generic/commercial)
• Galician: granito (gl) m, pedra de gran f
• Georgian: გრანიტი (graniṭi)
• German: Granit (de) m
• Greek: γρανίτης (el) m (granítis)
• Hindi: ग्रेनाइट (hi) m (grenāiṭ)
• Hungarian: gránit (hu)
• Icelandic: granít n
• Ido: granito (io)
• Indonesian: granit (id)
• Ingrian: granitta, harmaakivi
• Irish: eibhear m
• Italian: granito (it) m
• Japanese: 花崗岩 (ja) (かこうがん, kakōgan)
• Kazakh: гранит (granit)
• Korean: 화강암(花崗巖) (ko) (hwagang'am)
• Kyrgyz: гранит (granit)
• Latvian: granīts m
• Lithuanian: granitas (lt) m
• Luxembourgish: Granit m
• Macedonian: гранит m (granit)
• Malay: granit
• Malayalam: കരിങ്കല്ല് (ml) (kariṅkallŭ)
• Maori: ōnewa, tokapata
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: боржин чулуу (boržin čuluu)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: granitt (no) m

  Nynorsk: granitt m

• Persian: گرانیت (fa) (gerânit), سنگ خارا (sang-e xârâ)
• Piedmontese: granì m
• Polish: granit (pl) m
• Portuguese: granito (pt) m
• Romanian: granit (ro) n
• Romansch: granit m
• Russian: грани́т (ru) m (granít)
• Serbo-Croatian: granit (sh) m, гра̀нӣт m
• Slovak: granit m, žula f
• Slovene: granit (sl) m
• Spanish: granito (es) m, berroqueña (dated)
• Swedish: granit (sv) c
• Tagalog: tumbesi, batumbesi
• Tajik: хоро (xoro), хоросанг (xorosang)
• Turkish: granit (tr)
• Ukrainian: грані́т (uk) m (hranít)
• Vietnamese: đá hoa cương (vi) (𥒥花岡)
• Welsh: gwenithfaen m, ithfaen m
• West Frisian: granyt n
• Yiddish: גראַניט m (granit)

See also

• pegmatite, feldspar, quartz, granodiorite

Anagrams

• gratiné, angrite, tangier, tearing, Tangier, ingrate, Geraint

Italian

Noun

granite f

1. plural of granita

Anagrams

• Argenti, Tangeri, argenti, girante, ingrate, integra, negarit, negarti, negrità, regnati, rigante, ritenga, tingerà