oolite
- noun
- /ˈuːlaɪt/
- Specialized
:
oolita
- And so, he had been there when her two eggs collided, merged like fingers pressed in prayer, and then began to split, to become human life anticipated on the green-tinged sonogram screen like oolite, the white vertebrae of millions of tiny sea creatures crushed together: conception, holy, awesome conception.
Examples
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Bellinghman: I take it you've seen Oolite.
Blog text (8) -
Oolite is a type of oolite that forms from tiny, round grains of calcium carbonate.
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Geologists analyze oolite to understand ancient marine environments.
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The beach was lined with beautiful oolite that shimmered in the sunlight.
Synonyms
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1.0
Hard natural stone that you find on the ground or underground
30
3.2
A hard rock that forms from the remains of sea animals and shells
3
3.5
Rock made from layers of sand, mud, or broken shells
Surface Forms
Morphology
oolite = oo + lite
The parts are technical combining forms (Greek 'oo-' for 'egg' and a -lite/-lith element for 'stone/rock') that are not productive or obvious to a B1 learner, so the meaning cannot be reliably derived from the visible parts.
Etymology
The word oolite comes from the parts oo- ('egg') and -lite ('stone'), because the rock is made of many small, round grains that look like tiny eggs. So, think of oolite as a 'stone of egg-like grains'.