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Glite Dictionary
silicious

silicious

9.9
A rock or material that contains a lot of silica, a hard mineral
  • adjective
  • /sɪˈlɪʃəs/
  • Specialized
: silíceo
  • The silicious rock formation in the valley is primarily made of quartz.

Examples

  • The soil in this area is silicious, making it ideal for growing certain types of plants.

  • Many companies now produce silicious materials for high-tech electronic products.

  • Good PR for the newspapers, good source material for silicious media reports, but we never had that.

Synonyms

siliceous
vssilicious
  • Specialized
1 9.9

Made of or containing silica, the hard material in sand and glass

is more specific and means mainly composed of silica
silicic
vssilicious
  • Specialized
1 8.1

Containing a lot of silica, like some rocks and volcanic magma

is a general term meaning mainly composed of silica rather than derived from it

Surface Forms

silicious positive

Morphology

silicious = silica (transparent) = silic + ious

The adjective is formed by a regular adjectival suffix (-ious) from 'silica', so its meaning is directly derivable from the noun.

Etymology

Silicious comes from the Latin root silic-, which meant 'flint' or 'hard stone', and is the same root as silica and silicon. So, to call a rock silicious is to say it is like 'flint' or is made mostly of silica, the material in sand and glass.