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''quartz'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260714000159-00-⌔

quartz - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

quartz (countable and uncountable, plural quartzes)

  • (mineralogy) The most abundant mineral on the earth’s surface, of chemical composition silicon dioxide, Si O. It occurs in a variety of forms, both crystalline and amorphous. Found in every environment.
    • ✤ The telescope and collimator have each an object-glass consisting of a single lens of quartz 1½ inch diameter and a focal length of 18½ inches for the sodium yellow light, but not more than 16 inches for the highest rays measured.1
    • ✤ Subsequently, the old Malay brought him the present specimen in a state of torpidity, telling him he had found it in a cavity of the quartz reef.2
    • ✤ My meat eats me. Who waits at the gate?/Mother of quartz, your words writhe into my ear./Renew the light, lewd whisper.3
  • (uncountable, slang) Crystal meth: methamphetamine hydrochloride.

Etymology

From German Quarz, from Middle High German (Central East German) quarz, twarc, from a West Slavic language [compare Polish twardy (“hard”), Czech tvrdý (“hard”)], from Proto-Slavic ﹡tvьrdъ ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ﹡twerH- (“to enclose, grab”).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /k(w)ɔːts/
  • (General American) IPA: /k(w)ɔɹts/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɔːts, -ɔɹts
  • Homophone: courts (some accents)
  • Homophone: quarts

Printed 2026-07-14.

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Footnotes

  1. 1883, George Downing Liveing, James Dewar, “On the Ultra-Violet Spectra of the Elements”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, volume 174, Barrison and Sons, part I, page 188: ↩

  2. 1892 April, Armiger Barczinsky, “The Golden Snail”, in Sylvanus Urban (pseudonym of Edward Cave), editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, volume 272, page 331: ↩

  3. 1948, Theodore Roethke, “The Shape of the Fire”, in The Lost Son and Other Poems, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 62: ↩

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