Adjacent Words

crystalline definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: consisting of or containing or of the nature of crystals; "granite is crystalline" [ant: noncrystalline]
2: distinctly or sharply outlined; "crystalline sharpness of outline"- John Buchan
3: transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity; "the cold crystalline water of melted snow"; "crystal clear skies"; "could see the sand on the bottom of the limpid pool"; "lucid air"; "a pellucid brook"; "transparent crystal" [syn: crystalline, crystal clear, limpid, lucid, pellucid, transparent]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English cristallin, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, from Latin crystallinus, from Greek krystallinos, from krystallos Date: 15th century 1. resembling crystal: as a. strikingly clear or sparkling <crystalline air> <a crystalline lake> b. clear-cut 2. made of crystal ; composed of crystals 3. constituting or relating to a crystal • crystallinity noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 of, like, or clear as crystal. 2 Chem. & Mineral. having the structure and form of a crystal. Phrases and idioms: crystalline lens a transparent lens enclosed in a membranous capsule behind the iris of the eye. Derivatives: crystallinity n. Etymology: ME f. OF cristallin f. L crystallinus f. Gk krustallinos (as CRYSTAL)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Crystalline Crys"tal*line (kr?s"tal-l?n or -l?n; 277), a. [L. crystallinus, from Gr. ????: cf. F. cristallin. See Crystal.] 1. Consisting, or made, of crystal. Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline. --Shak. 2. Formed by crystallization; like crystal in texture. Their crystalline structure. --Whewell. 3. Imperfectly crystallized; as, granite is only crystalline, while quartz crystal is perfectly crystallized. 4. Fig.: Resembling crystal; pure; transparent; pellucid. ``The crystalline sky.'' --Milton. Crystalline heavens, or Crystalline spheres, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those within it), in order to explain certain movements of the heavenly bodies. Crystalline lens (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the eye, serving to focus the rays of light. It consists of rodlike cells derived from the external embryonic epithelium.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Crystalline Crys"tal*line, n. 1. A crystalline substance. 2. See Aniline. [Obs.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. A crystalline substance is in the form of crystals or contains crystals. Diamond is the crystalline form of the element carbon. ADJ: usu ADJ n 2. Crystalline means clear or bright. (LITERARY) ...a huge plain dotted with crystalline lakes. ADJ: usu ADJ n

Moby Thesaurus

clean-cut, clear, clear as crystal, clear as day, clear-cut, coherent, connected, consistent, craggy, crisp, crystal, crystal-clear, defined, definite, diaphane, diaphanous, direct, distinct, explicit, express, filmy, gauzy, gossamer, gossamery, gravelly, gritty, lapideous, light-pervious, limpid, lithoid, lithoidal, loud and clear, lucid, luminous, monolithic, nonopaque, pebbled, pebbly, peekaboo, pellucid, perspicuous, plain, porphyritic, revealing, rock-ribbed, rock-strewn, rock-studded, rocklike, rocky, sandy, see-through, sheer, shingled, shingly, simple, stonelike, stony, straightforward, thin, trachytic, translucent, transparent, transpicuous, unambiguous, unclouded, unconfused, unequivocal, univocal, unmistakable, well-defined