hornfels

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any of a series of contact metamorphic rocks that have been baked and indurated by the heat of intrusive igneous masses and rendered massive, hard, splintery, and in some cases exceedingly tough and durable.

Pronunciation

En-hornfels.ogg

Word forms

hornfels hornfelses

Etymology

Borrowed from German Hornfels, literally "horn stone", after its frequent association with glacial "horn peaks" in the Alps.

Derived words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.