crystal
See also: Crystal
Contents
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English crystal, cristal, criȝstall, from Old English cristalla (“crystal”), a borrowing from Latin crystallum (“crystal, ice”) (later reinforced from Anglo-Norman cristall and Middle French cristal, from Latin crystallum), from Ancient Greek κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “clear ice”), from κρύος (krúos, “frost”), from the Proto-Indo-European *krus-, *kru- (“hard, hard outer surface, crust”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
crystal (countable and uncountable, plural crystals)
- (countable) A solid composed of an array of atoms or molecules possessing long-range order and arranged in a pattern which is periodic in three dimensions.
- (countable) A piece of glimmering, shining mineral resembling ice or glass.
- (uncountable) A fine type of glassware, or the material used to make it.
- (uncountable, slang) Crystal meth: methamphetamine hydrochloride.
- The glass over the dial of a watch case.
SynonymsEdit
- (array of atoms): grain
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Derived terms
Related termsEdit
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TranslationsEdit
array of atoms
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mineral
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glassware
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(used attributively)
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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AdjectiveEdit
crystal (not comparable)
- Very clear.
- c. 1595, William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i], page 23, column 1–2:
- Thou art a Traitor, and a Miſcreant;
Too good to be ſo, and too bad to liue,
Since the more faire and chriſtall is the skie,
The vglier ſeeme the cloudes that in it flye:
- "Do I make myself clear?" / "Crystal."
ReferencesEdit
- “crystal” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.