Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Friable |
FriableAdjective1. Easily broken into small fragments or reduced to powder; "friable sandstone"; "friable carcinomatous tissue"; "friable curds formed in the stomach". 2. (used of soil) loose and large-grained in consistency; "light sandy soil". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "friable" was first used: 1563. (references) |
Etymology: Friable \Fri"a*ble\, adjective. [Latin expression friabilis, from friare to rub, break, or crumble into small pieces, compare to fricare to rub, English fray: compare to the French expression friable.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Environment | Capable of being crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to powder by hand pressure. (references) |
Metallurgy | Easily crumbled or pulverized. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | Easily crumbled, as a rock that is poorly cemented. Source: European Union. (references) |
| A. Said of a rock or mineral that crumbles naturally or is easily broken, pulverized, or reduced to powder, such as a soft or poorly cemented sandstone b. Said of a soil consistency in which moist soil material crushes easily under gentle to moderate pressure (between thumb and forefinger) andcoheres when pressed together. (references) | |
Science | Readily powdered, crumbling. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: FriableSynonyms: light (adj), sandy (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Pulverulence | Pulverizable; friable, crumbly, shivery; pulverized. Verb: attrite; in pieces. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Friable |
| English words defined with "friable": Calambour ♦ Friabiiity ♦ Moor coal ♦ Prian ♦ Rotten stone ♦ Torrefy. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "friable": Asbestos Assessment ♦ Bauholz ♦ differential grinding, dry-bone ore ♦ friable amber, Friable Asbestos, friable humus ♦ Nutzholz ♦ ornansite ♦ radiolarian rock, Regulated Asbestos-Containing Material, roof shale ♦ settling sand, sludge sample, stepped longwall, sugar spar, sugary quartz ♦ Zimmerholz. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "friable": Chrism ♦ Friation. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Friable" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (brittle, crumbly, friable, powdery, shortened), Spanish (friable). |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Friable" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Friable" is used about 29 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 29 | 64,444 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "friable": friable humus. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
friable cervix | 16 |
friable | 7 |
asbestos friable | 4 |
asbestos friable non | 2 |
cervix friable pregnancy | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "friable"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | i shkrifët (incoherent, loamy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | فتوت, هش (brash, brittle, crisp, fragile, powdery, short, shortened, tender, tenuous), قصم (crisp, fragile, frail). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | ронлив (cracky, flaky, light, loose, powdery, pulverulent, short), трошлив (breakable, crumbly, frangible, pulverulent). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | "碎 (brittle, Crush, fragile). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | drobivý (crumbly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | skoert (petticoat, skirt), skoer (brittle), bekvem (comfortable). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | rul (coarse, loose, rough, sandy), bros (brittle), brokkelig (brittle). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | mureneva (brittle), kuohkea (light, loose, mellow), hauras (brittle, fragile, frail). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | friable. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | bröcklig, bröckelig (crumbling, crumbly, papery, tottering). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | εύθρυπτος. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | פריר (crumby). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | omlós (crisp, crispy, short), porló, morzsolódó (brittle, crumbling). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | friabile (brittle). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | molmaghey (moulder), mollim (crumbly, rotting). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | iablefray friável (brittle). (various references) friabil, fragil (breakable, brittle, crisp, fine-spun, fragile, frail, frangible, handle with care, Sandy, shivery, slender, with care). (various references) рыхлый (bulk, crumbly, doughy, light, mealy). (various references) trošan (dilapidated, ramshackle, ruinous, tumble down, tumbledown). (various references) friable. (various references) spröd (brittle, crisp, delicate, frangible, tender). (various references) เปราะ (frail). (various references) ufalanır, kolay dağılır, gevrek (brittle, crisp, crispy, crunchy, fragile, rusk, short, tender). (various references) крихкий (brash, brittle, eager, flimsy, fragile, frail, shivery), пухкий (crumbly, mellow, non-coherent, well-padded). (various references) dễ vụn, bở. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | friabilis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Friable" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ariable, driable, Firatli, frable, fraile, frale, freeable, fremblii, frigale, frimbal, frimble, frisbe, fritalux, fryable. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "friable" (pronounced 'Fri"a*ble'): Abatable, Abdicable, Abhominable, Abhorrible, Abolishable, Abominable, Abrogable, Absolvable, Absorbable, Abusable, Accendible, Accentuable, Acceptable, Accessible, Acclimatable, Acclimatizable, Accommodable, Accompanable, Accomplishable, Accomptable, Accordable, Accostable, Accountable, Accusable, Accustomable, Acetable, Achievable, Acidifiable, Acquaintable, Acquirable, Acreable, Actable, Actionable, Adaptable, Addable, Addible, Adducible, Adjustable, Administrable, Admirable, Admissible, Admittable, Adoptable, Adorable, Adustible, Advantageable, Advisable, Affable, Affectible, Affiliable. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-e-f-i-l-r" | |
-1 letter: bailer, fabler, ferial, librae. | |
-2 letters: abler, afire, ariel, baler, birle, blare, blear, brail, brief, fable, farle, feral, feria, fiber, fibre, filar, filer, flair, flare, flier, frail, liber, libra, lifer, rifle. | |
-3 letters: able, abri, alef, alif, aril, bail, bale, bare, barf, bear, bier, bile, birl, blae, brae, brie, earl, fail, fair, fare, farl, feal. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-e-f-i-l-r" | |
+1 letter: afebrile, balefire, barflies, fireable, fireball, flabbier. | |
+2 letters: balefires, fibrillae, filtrable, fireballs, frangible, inferable. | |
+3 letters: affirmable, clofibrate, fiberglass, fibreglass, fibrillate, filterable, fireballer, forgivable, formidable, pilferable, profitable, refillable, verifiable. | |
+4 letters: beautifuler, certifiable, certifiably, clofibrates, confirmable, fibrillated, fibrillates, fireballers, fireballing, forfeitable, infrangible, irrefutable, irrefutably, rectifiable, refrangible, trafficable, vitrifiable. | |
+5 letters: defibrillate, fertilizable, fiberglassed, fiberglasses, fibreglasses, flabelliform, forgeability, formalizable, friabilities, insufferable, insufferably, irreformable, irrefragable, irrefragably, transfusible, unforgivable, unprofitable, unverifiable. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)46 72 69 61 62 6C 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)..-. .-. .. .- -... .-.. . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000110 01110010 01101001 01100001 01100010 01101100 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)F r i a b l e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0046 0072 0069 0061 0062 006C 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)40847567687871 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
