Definitions

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

  • noun An igneous rock composed primarily of alkali feldspar together with other minerals, such as hornblende.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the quantitative system of classification (see rock), a proposed general field-term for a phaneric igneous rock composed of dominant feldspar of any kind, with subordinate amounts of mica, hornblende, pyroxene, or other minerals, and without a noticeable amount of quartz
  • noun A rock composed of feldspar and hornblende, with or without quartz.

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

  • noun Orig., a rock composed of quartz, hornblende, and feldspar, anciently quarried at Syene, in Upper Egypt, and now called granite.
  • noun A granular, crystalline, ingeous rock composed of orthoclase and hornblende, the latter often replaced or accompanied by pyroxene or mica. Syenite sometimes contains nephelite (elæolite) or leucite, and is then called nephelite (elæolite) syenite or leucite syenite.

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

  • noun geology, obsolete granite
  • noun geology An igneous rock composed of feldspar and hornblende

Etymologies

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

[Latin Syēnītēs (lapis), (stone) of Syene, from Syēnē, Syene, an ancient city of southern Egypt, from Greek Suēnē.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin Syenites, because anciently quarried at Syene in Egypt.

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