Word.ws English Dictionary

gneiss

/ˈnaɪs/

gneiss noun: a common and widely-distributed metamorphic rock having bands or veins, but not schistose.

gneiss: a common and widely-distributed metamorphic rock having bands or veins, but not schistose
Image: Siim, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

gneiss (usually uncountable, plural gneisses)

  1. (usually) A common and widely-distributed metamorphic rock having bands or veins, but not schistose.
    • The old towns along the route are as solidly built from the gneiss of the region as you might expect.2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 98

gneiss meaning in Tamil, Persian and Vietnamese

gneiss in Tamil

உருமாறிய கருங்கல், நைஸ், வரிப்பாறை இணைவு, படிகம், களிமம்

gneiss in Persian

common and widely-distributed metamorphic rock
گنیس gneys

gneiss in Vietnamese

common and widely-distributed metamorphic rock
gơ-nai

Examples of gneiss in a sentence

  • E.g., orthogneiss is a gneiss derived from igneous, rather than sedimentary (paragneiss); orthoamphibolite, orthocumulate.
  • Wills does not just climb cliffs or scramble over boulders; he negotiates "schistaceous gneiss."
  • The ironrich oxidic soils are derived from ferro-magnesian rocks and low-quartzose gneisses.

All 11 example sentences with gneiss

Forms of gneiss

pluralgneisses

Origin of gneiss

From German Gneis, from Middle High German gneist (“spark”), from Old High German gneisto (“spark”). More at gnast.

Words formed from gneiss

Words that rhyme with gneiss

31 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gneiss

What does gneiss mean?
Gneiss means a common and widely-distributed metamorphic rock having bands or veins, but not schistose.
What is gneiss in Tamil?
Gneiss in Tamil is உருமாறிய கருங்கல், நைஸ், வரிப்பாறை இணைவு. See Gneiss meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is gneiss?
Gneiss is a noun.
How do you pronounce gneiss?
Gneiss is pronounced /ˈnaɪs/.
What is the plural of gneiss?
The plural of gneiss is gneisses.

Words near gneiss in the dictionary

  1. gnede
  2. gneeve
  3. Gneeveguilla
  4. gneeves
  5. Gneevguilla
  6. gneiss
  7. gneisses
  8. gneissgranite
  9. gneissgranites
  10. gneissic
  11. gneissification

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gneiss (page history and authors); gneiss (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-nice.ogg.

Cite this entry: “gneiss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gneiss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.