Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing a nonmetallic mineral, such as clay, at a high temperature.
  • noun An object, such as earthenware, porcelain, or tile, made of ceramic.
  • noun The art or technique of making objects of ceramic, especially from fired clay.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or belonging to pottery or to the fictile arts; pertaining to the manufacture of porcelain, stoneware, earthenware, and terra-cotta: as, ceramic decoration.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to pottery; relating to the art of making earthenware.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective made of material produced by the high temperature firing of inorganic, nonmetallic rocks and minerals.
  • noun uncountable A hard brittle material that is produced through burning of nonmetallic minerals at high temperatures
  • noun countable An object made of this material

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an artifact made of hard brittle material produced from nonmetallic minerals by firing at high temperatures
  • adjective of or relating to or made from a ceramic

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Greek keramikos, of pottery, from keramos, potter's clay; see ker- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek κεραμικός (keramikos, "potter's"), from κέραμος (keramos, "potter's clay"), perhaps from a pre-Hellenic word.

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