zeolite

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: ze=o=lite

CIDE DICTIONARY

zeolite, n. [Gr. to boil + -lite: cf. F. zéolithe.].

 A term now used to designate any one of a family of minerals, hydrous silicates of alumina, with lime, soda, potash, or rarely baryta. Here are included natrolite, stilbite, analcime, chabazite, thomsonite, heulandite, and others. These species occur of secondary origin in the cavities of amygdaloid, basalt, and lava, also, less frequently, in granite and gneiss. So called because many of these species intumesce before the blowpipe.  [1913 Webster]

Needle zeolite, needlestone; natrolite.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

zeolite, n. each of a number of minerals consisting mainly of hydrous silicates of calcium, sodium, and aluminium, able to act as cation exchangers.

Derivative

zeolitic adj.

Etymology

Sw. & G zeolit f. Gk zeo boil + -LITE (from their characteristic swelling and fusing under the blowpipe)