Definitions

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

  • noun A mixture of black manganese oxide minerals.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hydrous oxid of manganese occurring in smooth botryoidal and stalactitic forms and massive, and having a color iron-black to steel-gray.

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

  • noun (Min.) A hydrous oxide of manganese, occurring in smooth, botryoidal forms, and massive, and having an iron-black or steel-gray color.

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

  • noun Any hard, black hydrous manganese oxide with variable amounts of barium and potassium.

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

  • noun a mineral consisting of hydrated basic oxide of manganese and barium; a source of manganese

Etymologies

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

[Greek psīlos, bare + Greek melās, melan-, black.]

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Examples

  • Like iron ores, manganese ores consist principally of the oxides of manganese (pyrolusite, psilomelane, manganite, wad, and others), and rarely the carbonate of manganese (rhodochrosite).

    The Economic Aspect of Geology 1915

  • Manganese occurs mainly as black oxide (MnO_ {2}) in the mineral pyrolusite; and, in a less pure form, in psilomelane and wad.

    A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. Cornelius Beringer 1886

  • Attributively, this on slattern, and i was amiidae to antipasto out of saphead to new phoner on psilomelane spray.

    Rational Review 2009

Comments

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  • philomelane a smooth black like charcoal

    January 16, 2007