nepheline
nepheline noun: a feldspathoid mineral of silica-poor igneous, plutonic and volcanic rocks. Chemically, nepheline is a plagioclase feldspar with insufficient silica to satisfy the chemical bonds. Because of the unfilled bonds, nepheline weathers rapidly and can only be seen as inclusions in freshly broken rock.
Noun
nepheline (countable and uncountable, plural nephelines)
- A feldspathoid mineral of silica-poor igneous, plutonic and volcanic rocks. Chemically, nepheline is a plagioclase feldspar with insufficient silica to satisfy the chemical bonds. Because of the unfilled bonds, nepheline weathers rapidly and can only be seen as inclusions in freshly broken rock.
- Synonyms:
- nephelite
Synonyms of nepheline
Forms of nepheline
| plural | nephelines |
|---|
Origin of nepheline
From Ancient Greek νεφέλη (nephélē, “cloud”), because crystals become cloudy when exposed to acid, + -ine.
Words formed from nepheline
Questions about nepheline
- What does nepheline mean?
- Nepheline means a feldspathoid mineral of silica-poor igneous, plutonic and volcanic rocks. Chemically, nepheline is a plagioclase feldspar with insufficient silica to satisfy the chemical bonds. Because of the unfilled bonds, nepheline weathers rapidly and can only be seen as inclusions in freshly broken rock.
- What part of speech is nepheline?
- Nepheline is a noun.
- What is the plural of nepheline?
- The plural of nepheline is nephelines.
Words near nepheline in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nepheline (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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Cite this entry: “nepheline.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nepheline. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.