fə noun, plural por·phy·ries.
1.
a very hard rock, anciently quarried in Egypt, having a dark, purplish-red groundmass containing small crystals of feldspar.
2.
Petrology. any igneous rock containing coarse crystals, as phenocrysts, in a finer-grained groundmass.
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Porphyry
is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To porphyry
Collins
World English Dictionary
porphyry (ˈpɔːfɪrɪ) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n , pl -ries | |
| 1. | any igneous rock with large crystals embedded in a finer groundmass of minerals |
| 2. | obsolete a reddish-purple rock consisting of large crystals of feldspar in a finer groundmass of feldspar, hornblende, etc |
| [C14 porfurie, from Late Latin porphyrītēs, from Greek porphuritēs (lithos) purple (stone), from porphuros purple] | |
| Porphyry (ˈpɔːfɪrɪ) | |
| —n | |
| original name Malchus. 232--305 | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
porphyry
"beautiful and valuable stone," 1395, from O.Fr. porfire, from L. porphyrites, a purple semi-precious stone quarried near Red Sea in Egypt, from Gk. porphyrites "like purple" (the stone's name in Gk.), from porphyra (n.) "purple."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
porphyry  (pôr'fə-rē) Pronunciation Key
An igneous rock containing the large crystals known as phenocrysts embedded in a fine-grained matrix. porphyritic adjective (pôr'fə-rĭt'ĭk) |
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia
porphyry
Neoplatonist Greek philosopher, important both as an editor and as a biographer of the philosopher Plotinus and for his commentary on Aristotle's Categories, which set the stage for medieval developments of logic and the problem of universals. Boethius' Latin translation of the introduction (Isagoge) became a standard medieval textbook.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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