regolith
UK/ˈɹɛɡəlɪθ/
regolith noun: the layer of loose rock, dust, sand, and soil, resting on the bedrock, that constitutes the surface layer of most dry land on Earth, the Moon, and other large solid aggregated celestial objects. Submarine regolith also exists.
Noun
regolith (countable and uncountable, plural regoliths)
- The layer of loose rock, dust, sand, and soil, resting on the bedrock, that constitutes the surface layer of most dry land on Earth, the Moon, and other large solid aggregated celestial objects. Submarine regolith also exists.
- The structures on the surface were gone from normal view, pulverized into regolith across a span of aeons.2020 [1992], Vernor Vinge, chapter 1, in A Fire Upon the Deep, 1st edition, New York: Tor Essentials, →ISBN, page 19
- The soil sample, called LZS-1, is the latest in a list of lunar regolith simulants of varying quality that have been developed to help Nasa and other space agencies around the world prepare for missions to the Moon.2023 April 25, Dhananjay Khadilkar, “Why scientists are making fake Moon dust”, in BBC
Forms of regolith
| plural | regoliths |
|---|
Origin of regolith
Irregular formation from Ancient Greek ῥῆγος (rhêgos, “rug, blanket”) + -lith (from λίθος (líthos, “stone”)).
Words formed from regolith
Questions about regolith
- What does regolith mean?
- Regolith means the layer of loose rock, dust, sand, and soil, resting on the bedrock, that constitutes the surface layer of most dry land on Earth, the Moon, and other large solid aggregated celestial objects. Submarine regolith also exists.
- What part of speech is regolith?
- Regolith is a noun.
- How do you pronounce regolith?
- Regolith is pronounced /ˈɹɛɡəlɪθ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of regolith?
- The plural of regolith is regoliths.
Words near regolith in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: regolith (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Neøn-regolith.wav.
Cite this entry: “regolith.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/regolith. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.