zeolite Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun any of a family of glassy minerals analogous to feldspar containing hydrated aluminum silicates of calcium or sodium or potassium; formed in cavities in lava flows and in plutonic rocks

Gr. to boil + -lite: cf. F. zéolithe.

(Min.) 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.