Definitions

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

  • noun The primary ore of zinc, occurring in usually yellow-brown or brownish-black crystals or cleavage masses, essentially ZnS with some cadmium, iron, and manganese.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The native zinc sulphid more familiarly known as zinc-blende. See blende.

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

  • noun (Min.) Zinc sulphide; -- called also blende, black-jack, false galena, etc. See blende (a).

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

  • noun an ore that is the chief source of zinc; consists largely of zinc sulfide in crystalline form

Etymologies

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

[Greek sphaleros, slippery, deceitful (from sphallein, to trip, from its being easily mistaken for galena) + –ite.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Greek σφαλερὀς (sfaledos) "treacherous", named in 1847.

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Examples

  • Some important metallic minerals are: hematite (a source of iron), bauxite (a source of aluminum), sphalerite (a source of zinc) and galena (a source of lead).

    AP Environmental Science Chapter 10- Minerals 2008

  • It is also found in zinc ore (sphalerite) and in coal.

    Gallium 2008

  • It is now known that it is relatively abundant in some but not all zinc sulphide (sphalerite or ZnS) ore deposits.

    Indium 2008

  • These minerals form with the zinc mineral sphalerite.

    Thallium 2008

  • Indium is retrieved as a by-product of zinc ores, specifically from the mineral sphalerite, where its abundance can be as high as almost 900 parts per million (ppm) or as low as 1 ppm.

    Indium 2008

  • Most cadmium used in industry is recovered from sphalerite (zinc sulfide), the principle ore of zinc where cadmium atoms replace some of zinc atoms in the sphalerite.

    Cadmium 2007

  • This is especially important for those valuable minerals which exhibit a brittle to very brittle tenacity, such as cassiterite, sphalerite and the tungsten minerals scheelite and wolframite.

    Chapter 20 1993

  • The Kentucky display contained also zinc ore and sphalerite, lead ore and barite, lead and zinc ore, and fluarite from the mines in Chittenden County; zinc and lead ores and metallic zinc from "the Joplin district of Kentucky;" sphalerite and galena from

    Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

  • This substance occurs as the mineral sphalerite, and is one of the most valued ores of zinc.

    An Elementary Study of Chemistry William McPherson

  • A set of specimens was exhibited by the Ellenville Zinc Company, consisting of strikingly beautiful crystalline masses of quartz galina, sphalerite and chalcopyrite and specimens of the rare mineral, brookite.

    New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 Report of the New York State Commission DeLancey M. Ellis

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