Word.ws English Dictionary

hepatite

hepatite noun: a variety of barite that emits a foetid odour when rubbed or heated.

Noun

hepatite (countable and uncountable, plural hepatites)

  1. (dated) A variety of barite that emits a foetid odour when rubbed or heated.
    • Carbon forms the basis of several of the combustibles; as coal, bitumen, amber, &c.; and it enters into the composition of a few minerals in small proportion; in the Aberthaw limestone, the hepatite, semi-opal, and in clay-slate, not exceeding 1 or 2 per cent.;[…].1823, [1816], William Phillips, An Elementary Introduction to the Knowledge of Mineralogy, 3rd edition, page lii

Forms of hepatite

pluralhepatites

Origin of hepatite

From Latin hepatitis, an unknown precious stone, from Ancient Greek ἧπαρ (hêpar, “liver”); compare French hépatite.

Questions about hepatite

What does hepatite mean?
Hepatite means a variety of barite that emits a foetid odour when rubbed or heated.
What part of speech is hepatite?
Hepatite is a noun.
What is the plural of hepatite?
The plural of hepatite is hepatites.

Words near hepatite in the dictionary

  1. hepatise
  2. hepatised
  3. hepatises
  4. hepatising
  5. hepatism
  6. hepatite
  7. hepatites
  8. hepatitic
  9. hepatitides
  10. hepatitis
  11. hepatitis A

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hepatite (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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