crystalline

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: crys=tal=line

CIDE DICTIONARY

crystalline, a. [L. crystallinus, from Gr. : cf. F. cristallin. See Crystal.].

•  Consisting, or made, of crystal.  [1913 Webster]

  "Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline."  [1913 Webster]
•  Formed by crystallization; like crystal in texture.  [1913 Webster]

  "Their crystalline structure."  [1913 Webster]
•  Imperfectly crystallized; as, granite is only crystalline, while quartz crystal is perfectly crystallized.  [1913 Webster]
•  Fig.: Resembling crystal; pure; transparent; pellucid.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

Crystalline heavens, or Crystalline spheres, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those within it), in order to explain certain movements of the heavenly bodies. -- Crystalline lens (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the eye, serving to focus the rays of light. It consists of rodlike cells derived from the external embryonic epithelium.

crystalline, n. 

•  A crystalline substance.  [1913 Webster]
•  See Aniline.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

crystalline, adj.
1 of, like, or clear as crystal.
2 Chem. & Mineral. having the structure and form of a crystal.

Idiom

crystalline lens a transparent lens enclosed in a membranous capsule behind the iris of the eye.

Derivative

crystallinity n.

Etymology

ME f. OF cristallin f. L crystallinus f. Gk krustallinos (as CRYSTAL)

THESAURUS

crystalline

clean-cut, clear, clear as crystal, clear as day, clear-cut, coherent, connected, consistent, craggy, crisp, crystal, crystal-clear, defined, definite, diaphane, diaphanous, direct, distinct, explicit, express, filmy, gauzy, gossamer, gossamery, gravelly, gritty, lapideous, light-pervious, limpid, lithoid, lithoidal, loud and clear, lucid, luminous, monolithic, nonopaque, pebbled, pebbly, peekaboo, pellucid, perspicuous, plain, porphyritic, revealing, rock-ribbed, rock-strewn, rock-studded, rocklike, rocky, sandy, see-through, sheer, shingled, shingly, simple, stonelike, stony, straightforward, thin, trachytic, translucent, transparent, transpicuous, unambiguous, unclouded, unconfused, unequivocal, univocal, unmistakable, well-defined

ROGET THESAURUS

crystalline

Density

N density, solidity, solidness, impenetrability, impermeability, incompressibility, imporosity, cohesion, constipation, consistence, spissitude, specific gravity, hydrometer, areometer, condensation, caseation, solidation, solidification, consolidation, concretion, coagulation, petrification, crystallization, precipitation, deposit, precipitate, inspissation, gelation, thickening, indivisibility, indiscerptibility, insolubility, indissolvableness, solid body, mass, block, knot, lump, concretion, concrete, conglomerate, cake, clot, stone, curd, coagulum, bone, gristle, cartilage, casein, crassamentum, legumin, superdense matter, condensed states of matter, dwarf star, neutron star, dense, solid, solidified, caseous, pukka, coherent, cohesive, compact, close, serried, thickset, substantial, massive, lumpish, impenetrable, impermeable, nonporous, imporous, incompressible, constipated, concrete, knotted, knotty, gnarled, crystalline, crystallizable, thick, grumous, stuffy, undissolved, unmelted, unliquefied, unthawed, indivisible, indiscerptible, infrangible, indissolvable, indissoluble, insoluble, infusible.

Transparency

N transparence, transparency, clarity, translucence, translucency, diaphaneity, lucidity, pellucidity, limpidity, fluorescence, transillumination, translumination, transparent medium, glass, crystal, lymph, vitrite, water, transparent, pellucid, lucid, diaphanous, translucent, tralucent, relucent, limpid, clear, serene, crystalline, clear as crystal, vitreous, transpicuous, glassy, hyaline, hyaloid, vitreform.