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Glite Dictionary
🪨 To become stone 💔 To harden feelings
to lithify

to lithify

9.8
To turn into solid rock over time
  • verb
  • /ˈlɪθɪfaɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : litificar
  • Over time, the sediments around your fossil will lithify or turn into rock, but you're not in the clear yet.

Examples

  • The heat and pressure deep underground can lithify the sediments into solid rock over millions of years.

  • Sedimentary layers that lithify over time provide important clues about Earth's history.

  • The only point I'd like to expand on is the general misperception of the movement of fluids in porous media such as sediments and lithified rock.

    Blog text (30)

  • Great Basin imagery has been instrumental in promoting Yucca Mountain, a ridge of lithified volcanic ash located some 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as an ideal site at which to entomb the nation.

    Academic text (2005)

  • During the geological process, organic materials can lithify and create fossilized remains.

Synonyms

to solidify
vsto lithify
55 4.4

To change from a liquid or gas into a hard state as it cools

involves forming real stone or solid rock through geological processes
to petrify
vsto lithify
  • Specialized
1 7.4

To change something into stone over a long time

applies to broader rock formation from sediments or materials via geology
to lapidify
vsto lithify
  • Archaic
9.9

To change into stone

emphasizes natural geological processes rather than any process
to mineralize
vsto lithify
  • Specialized
7.4

To become hard as minerals collect inside things like bones

creates solid rock from sediments through compaction and cementation

How Solid

to petrify
  • Specialized
1 7.4
to lithify
  • Specialized
9.8
to solidify
55 4.4
to harden
27 2.6

Surface Forms

lithify infinitive
lithified past
lithified past participle
lithifying present participle
lithifies third person singular

Morphology

lithify = lithic (transparent) = lith + ify

The verb is a straightforward combination of the stem meaning 'stone' (lith-) and the verb-forming suffix '-ify' meaning 'make', yielding 'turn into stone'.

Etymology

Lithify comes from the Greek root lith- meaning 'stone' and is the same root in monolith, which means 'one big stone'. To remember it, think of soft sand or mud slowly turning into hard rock, so to lithify is to turn something into stone or solid rock.