Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Spinel |
SpinelNoun1. A hard glassy mineral consisting of an oxide of magnesium and aluminum; occurs in various colors that are used as gemstones. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Mining | A. An isometric mineral, MgAl2 O4 ; crystallizes as octahedra; colorless to pale tints; Mohs hardness, 7.5 to 8; in high-temperature metamorphic rocks, contact metamorphosed limestones, serpentinites, and ultramafic rocks; may be of gem quality. b. The spinel series gahnite, galaxite, hercynite, and spinel. c. The mineral group brunogeierite, chromite, cochromite, coulsonite, cuprospinel, franklinite, gahnite, galaxite, hercynite, jacobsite, magnesiochromite, magnesioferrite, magnetite, manganochromite, nichromite, ringwoodite, spinel, trevorite, ulvoespinel, and vuorelainenite. d. Minerals with the spinel structure, such as the linnaeite group. e. A synthetic crystal with spinel structure that is used as a gemstone, a refractory, or for instrument bearings; e.g., ferrospinel. Also spelledspinelle; spinell; spinelite. See also:magnesium aluminate. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Spinel usually occurs in isometric crystals, octahedrons, usually twinned. It has an imperfect octahedral cleavage and a conchoidal fracture. Its hardness is 8, its specific gravity is 3.5-4.1 and it is transparent to opaque with a vitreous to dull lustre. It may be colorless, but is usually various shades of red, blue, green, yellow, brown or black. There is an unique natural white spinel, now lost, that surfaced briefly in what is now Sri Lanka. Another famous spinel is the Black Prince's Ruby in the British Crown Jewels.
The name "spinel" is derived from the Greek word for spark, in reference to the fiery red color of spinels often used for gems. The transparent red spinels are also called spinel-rubies or balas-rubies and were often confused with actual rubies in ancient times. "Balas" is derived from Balascia, the ancient name for Badakhshan, a region in central Asia situated in the upper valley of the Kokcha river, one of the principal tributaries of the Oxus river. Yellow spinel is called rubicelle and violet-colored manganese-bearing spinel is called almandine.
Spinel is found as a metamorphic mineral, and also as a primary mineral in basic rocks, because in such magmas the absence of alkalis prevents the formation of feldspars and any aluminium oxide present will form corundum or combine with magnesia to form spinel. This is why spinel and ruby are often found together.
See also: List of minerals
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Spinel."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Jewelry | Diamond, brilliant, rock; beryl, emerald; chalcedony, agate, heliotrope; girasol, girasole; onyx, plasma; sard, sardonyx; garnet, lapis lazuli, opal, peridot, tourmaline, chrysolite; sapphire, ruby, synthetic ruby; spinel, spinelle; balais; oriental, oriental topaz; turquois, turquoise; zircon, cubic zirconia; jacinth, hyacinth, carbuncle, amethyst; alexandrite, cat's eye, bloodstone, hematite, jasper, moonstone, sunstone. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Spinel |
| English words defined with "spinel": almandine, atomic number 12 ♦ balas, balas ruby ♦ Candite, Ceylanite, Ceylonite ♦ Dysluite ♦ Espinel ♦ Franklinite ♦ Gahnite ♦ Lherzolite ♦ magnesium, mg ♦ pleonaste ♦ rubicelle, ruby spinel ♦ spinel ruby, Spinelle ♦ Zinc spinel. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "spinel": almandine ruby ♦ chlorospinel, chrome spinel, chromian spinel ♦ Dirigem ♦ Erinide ♦ feldspathic emery, flame spinel, formation striae ♦ jourado diamond ♦ magnetite spinellite ♦ picotite ♦ satellites, Siam ruby, spinel emery, spinellite, synthetic stone ♦ Verneuil process. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Spinel" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Serbo-Croatian (spinel), Turkish (spinel). |
| "Spinel" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Spinel" is used about 2 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 |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 2 | 245,945 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "spinel": ruby spinel ♦ spinel ruby ♦ zinc spinel. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "spinel": cr-spinel. | |
| 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 |
spinel | 70 |
red spinel | 9 |
clean spinel tidy | 6 |
blue spinel | 5 |
spinel sun | 3 |
purple spinel | 3 |
optical properties spinel | 2 |
al mg spinel | 2 |
black spinel | 2 |
spinel structure | 2 |
anime spinel | 2 |
gem spinel | 2 |
burma red spinel | 2 |
spinel webmapper | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "spinel"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | الإسبنيل, بلخش. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | шпинел. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 尖晶石. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | at bestemme gitterparameteren for den fundne spinel (define the crystalline parameter of the spinel oxide found). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | de kristalkenmerken van het aangetroffen spineloxide bepalen (define the crystalline parameter of the spinel oxide found). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | spinelli (define the crystalline parameter of the spinel oxide found). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | spinelle. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | den Kristallparameter des Spinelloxids bestimmen (define the crystalline parameter of the spinel oxide found). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | είδοσ ρουβίνιου (spinel ruby), ορισμός των κρυσταλλικών παραμέτρων του οξειδίου του σπινελίου που βρέθηκαν (define the crystalline parameter of the spinel oxide found). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | spinell. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | definire il parametro cristallino dell' ossido spinello trovato (define the crystalline parameter of the spinel oxide found). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | inelspay espinela, espinel (paternoster). (various references) шпинель. (various references) spinel. (various references) define el parámetro cristalino del óxido espinelo encontrado (define the crystalline parameter of the spinel oxide found). (various references) spinel. (various references) шпінель. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "spinel": spineless, spinelessly, spinelessness, spinelessnesses, spinelike, spinelle, spinelles, spinels. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: pensil, spline. | |
| Words within the letters "e-i-l-n-p-s" | |
-1 letter: lenis, liens, lines, peins, penis, piles, pines, plies, slipe, snipe, speil, spiel, spile, spine. | |
-2 letters: isle, leis, lens, lien, lies, line, lins, lipe, lips, lisp, nils, nips, pein, pens, pies, pile, pine, pins, plie, sine, sipe, slip, snip, spin. | |
-3 letters: els, ens, ins, lei, lie, lin, lip, lis, nil, nip, pen, pes, pie. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-i-l-n-p-s" | |
+1 letter: alpines, epsilon, lineups, lippens, lupines, nipples, pencils, pensile, pensils, pilsner, pineals, pinoles, pintles, plenish, plenism, plenist, spaniel, spindle, spinels, spinule, splenia, splenic, splenii, splined, splines, unpiles. | |
+2 letters: biplanes, bonspiel, capelins, elapsing, epsilons, explains, helpings, hiplines, impanels, limpness, maniples, opalines, painless, panelist, panicles, pantiles, peelings, pelicans, penalise, penicils, penlites, pestling, pilsener, pilsners, pinholes, pinnules, pinocles, pinwales, plainest, pleasing, plenisms, plenists, plenties, plinkers, potlines, pralines, prolines, purlines, sandpile, sepaline, skelping, skiplane, sleeping, spaniels, speeling, speiling, spelling, spieling, spindled, spindler, spindles, spinelle, spinless, spinulae, spinules, splendid, splenial, splenium, splenius, splinted, splinter, sprinkle, supinely, toplines. | |
| 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. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage Frequency 4. Expressions | 5. Expressions: Internet 6. Translations: Modern 7. Derivations 8. Anagrams | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
