Word.ws English Dictionary

Chian earth

/ˈkiənˌɜɹθ/

Chian earth noun: a soft, dense, flaky, greyish-white earth found on the island of Chios, anciently used as an astringent and cosmetic.

Noun

Chian earth (uncountable)

  1. A soft, dense, flaky, greyish-white earth found on the island of Chios, anciently used as an astringent and cosmetic.
    • CHIAN earth, in pharmacy, one of the medicinal earths of the ancients, the name of which is preſerved in the catalogues of the materia medica but of which nothing more than the name has been known for many ages in the ſhops.
      It is a very denſe and compact earth, and is ſent hither in ſmall flat...1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., volume II, page 183

Origin of Chian earth

From its origin on Chios, a Greek island.

Questions about Chian earth

What does Chian earth mean?
Chian earth means a soft, dense, flaky, greyish-white earth found on the island of Chios, anciently used as an astringent and cosmetic.
What part of speech is Chian earth?
Chian earth is a noun.
How do you pronounce Chian earth?
Chian earth is pronounced /ˈkiənˌɜɹθ/.

Words near Chian earth in the dictionary

  1. Chiamai
  2. Chiamay
  3. Chiammay
  4. Chiampa
  5. Chian
  6. Chian earth
  7. Chian turpentine
  8. Chianan Plain
  9. Chianese
  10. Chianeses
  11. Chiang

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Chian earth (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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