marble

Syllables: mar·bleUK/ˈmɑː.bəl//ˈmɑɹ.bəl/

marble noun: a metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.

Image: Reiner Flassig, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

marble (countable and uncountable, plural marbles)

(uncountable) A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.
- Open thy marble jaws, O tomb / And hide me, earth, in thy dark womb.1751, George Frideric Handel, Thomas Morell (librettist), Jephtha
(countable) A small ball used in games, originally of marble but now usually of glass or ceramic.
(in plural) Statues made from marble.
- The Elgin Marbles were originally part of the temple of the Parthenon.
- [I]t was a portrait of the Library, though not strictly correct as to its contents, since all the best of the marbles displayed in various parts of the house were brought into the painting by the artist, who made it up into a picturesque composition according to his own taste.1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson, published 1986, page 164
The marbling in meat.
- The marble is graded using the Australian system.

Verb

marble (third-person singular simple present marbles, present participle marbling, simple past and past participle marbled)

(transitive) To cause (something to have) the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example by mixing viscous ingredients incompletely, or by applying paint or other colorants unevenly.
- The small clouds which chequered the sky, as they passed along, spread their flitting shadows on the distant mountains, and seemed to marble them; a beauty which I do not recollect has struck any painter.1774, William Hutchinson, An excursion to the lakes in Westmoreland and Cumberland, August, 1773, page 29
- In the operation of marbling the edges of the books, [...]1899, Thirteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, volume 1, page 106
Synonyms:

marbleize
(intransitive) To get or have the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example due to the incomplete mixing of viscous ingredients, or the uneven application of paint or other colorants.
- Scent the entire batch and then color half with the blue colorant. Pour both parts back into your soap pot. Do not stir. Pour in a circular motion into a block mold. The pouring action will cause the soap to marble.2007, Alicia Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book: Recipes and Techniques, page 125
(transitive) To cause meat, usually beef, pork, or lamb, to be interlaced with fat so that its appearance resembles that of marble.
- Their flesh is soft (tender), and they throw a portion of their fat among the lean so as to marble it. The beef is of a better quality and they take on fat much easier.1848, Samuel D. Martin, in a letter to the Albany Cultivator, quoted in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture (for the year 1859; published 1860), page 157
- The Merino sheep is likely to put his weight largely into tallow around the stomach, intestines and on his kidneys, instead of mixing fairly with the meat, instead of marbling the meat.1904, Annual Report of the Wisconsin State Board of Agriculture for the year 1903, page 309
Synonyms:

marbleize
(intransitive, especially beef) To become interlaced with fat; (of fat) to interlace through meat.
- We've gone mostly to black bulls — Angus bulls because today the packers like black cattle. They seem to marble better.1999, Kathleen Jo Ryan, Deep in the heart of Texas: Texas ranchers in their own words, page 99
- As we feed these cattle corn their meat marbles. By marbling, I mean the red meat cells are surrounded with fat1974, Rising cost of meat: hearings before the Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing and Consumer Relations
(broadly, figuratively) To lace or be laced throughout.
- Was he the reason for the bitterness that seemed to marble her character?1993, Susan Napier, Winter of Dreams, page 52
- 'Nobody who has been to war ever talks about it,' he says. But then he does talk, and generously, mining his memory and following the vein of a life marbled with experience: 'I mean, I am in my nineties; […]'2004, Scott Bevan, Battle Lines: Australian Artists at War

Adjective

marble (comparative more marble, superlative most marble)

Made of, or resembling, marble.
- a marble mantel
- marble paper
(figuratively) Cold; hard; unfeeling.
- a marble heart

Proper noun capitalized: Marble

Marble (plural Marbles)

A surname.
A statutory town in Gunnison County, Colorado.

marble meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

marble in Hindi

crystalline limestone: संगमरमर saṅgmarmar

marble in Tamil

crystalline limestone: பளிங்கு paḷiṅku, சலவைக்கல் calavaikkal
spherical ball: கோலி kōli, கோலிக்குண்டு kōlikkuṇṭu, போளை pōḷai
made of marble: பளிங்காலான paḷiṅkālāṉa

marble in Marathi

crystalline limestone: संगमरवर saṅgmarvar
spherical ball: गोटी goṭī
made of marble: संगमरवरी saṅgmaravrī

marble in Urdu

crystalline limestone: سنگ مرمر sang-e-marmar, مرمر marmar

More languagesFewer languages

marble in Bengali: গুলি guli
marble in Telugu: చలువఱాయి caluvaṟāyi
marble in Malayalam: ഗോട്ടി gōṭṭi, ഗോലി gōli, വട്ട് vaṭṭŭ, പളുങ്ക് paḷuṅkŭ
marble in Kannada: ಅಮೃತಶಿಲೆ amṛtaśile
marble in Punjabi: ਮਰਮਰ marmar, ਸੰਗਮਰਮਰ saṅgmaramar
marble in Gujarati: આરસપહાણ ārasaphāṇ
marble in Odia: ମାର୍ବଲ, ମାର୍ବଲ୍, ମାର୍ବଲିଂ
marble in Sinhala: කිරිගරුඩ kirigaruḍa
marble in Assamese: মৰ্মৰ mormor, মাৰ্বল marrol, বিৰিং গুটি biriṅ guti
marble in Nepali: संगमरमर, मार्बल, सङ्गमर्मर
marble in Tagalog: batumbuhay, marmol, holen
marble in Arabic: رُخَام ruḵām, بِلْيَة bilya
marble in Malay: marmar, guli, gundu, jaka
marble in Indonesian: marmer, pualam, kelereng
marble in Persian: مرمر marmar, تیله tile
marble in Thai: หินอ่อน hǐn-ɔ̀ɔn, ลูกแก้ว lûuk-gɛ̂ɛo
marble in Vietnamese: đá hoa, cẩm thạch
marble in Myanmar: စကျင်ကျောက် ca.kyangkyauk, ကျောက်ဒိုး kyaukdui:

Examples of marble in a sentence

Either by forcing the lardoon out with a plunger, by pushing it with a knife point, or by trailing it behind the needle, the cook artificially marbles the meat.2004, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of kitchen history, page 684:
... claims probably stem from people having eaten beef from older, thinner animals which had rarely had enough excess energy in their diet to cause the meat to marble.1978, Theodore Carroll Byerly, The role of ruminants in support of man:
The exercising of the cattle causes the fat to marble right through the animal — and much of the flavour is found in the fat.1972, Sondra Gotlieb, The Gourmet’s Canada, page 129:

All 40 example sentences with marble

Synonyms of marble

marbleize

Forms of marble

Noun
plural	marbles
Verb
third-person singular present	marbles
present participle	marbling
past participle	marbled
past	marbled
Adjective
comparative	more marble
superlative	most marble
Proper noun
plural	Marbles

Past tense of marble: marbled

Plural of marble: marbles

Origin of marble

Inherited from Middle English marble, marbre; from Anglo-Norman and Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Ancient Greek μάρμαρος (mármaros), perhaps related to μαρμάρεος (marmáreos, “gleaming”). The forms from French displaced Old English marma, which had previously been borrowed from Latin.

Phrases with marble

Words that rhyme with marble

Questions about marble

What does marble mean?: Marble means a metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.
What is marble in Hindi?: Marble in Hindi is संगमरमर (saṅgmarmar). See Marble meaning in Hindi.
How do you use marble in a sentence?: Either by forcing the lardoon out with a plunger, by pushing it with a knife point, or by trailing it behind the needle, the cook artificially marbles the meat.
What part of speech is marble?: Marble can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce marble?: Marble is pronounced /ˈmɑː.bəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of marble?: The plural of marble is marbles.

Words near marble in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: marble (page history and authors); Marble (page history and authors); গুলি (Bengali) (page history and authors); ഗോട്ടി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); marble (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); marble (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

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

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