Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🪙 Like pyrite ✨ Falsely attractive
pyritic

pyritic

1 9.6
Containing or looking like the yellow, shiny mineral called fool's gold
  • adjective
  • /paɪˈrɪtɪk/
  • Specialized
: pirítico
  • The geologist explained that the rock sample was pyritic due to its high content of fool's gold.

Examples

  • These advanced processes might one day separate out up to 90 percent of the pyritic sulfur.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Physical cleaning can remove from coal 30 to 50 percent of the pyritic sulfur (which is not organically bound into the coal), or 10 to 30 percent of the total sulfur content.

    Academic text (1990)

  • We found pyritic minerals in the sediment while exploring the abandoned mine.

  • During our hike, we came across a pyritic deposit that sparkled in the sunlight like gold.

Surface Forms

pyritic positive

Morphology

pyritic = pyrite (transparent) = pyrite + ic

Direct adjectival formation from 'pyrite' meaning 'containing or resembling pyrite', a straightforward -ic derivation.

Etymology

Pyritic comes from pyrite, a mineral named from the root pyr meaning 'fire' because the stone gave sparks when struck. So pyritic describes rocks or soil that contain or look like the yellow, metallic mineral pyrite.