Word.ws English Dictionary

rock varnish

rock varnish noun: a dark coating on rock surfaces exposed to the atmosphere, mostly comprising clay and oxides, which grows at only a few micrometers per thousand years; found especially in arid deserts.

Noun

rock varnish (countable and uncountable, plural rock varnishes)

  1. A dark coating on rock surfaces exposed to the atmosphere, mostly comprising clay and oxides, which grows at only a few micrometers per thousand years; found especially in arid deserts.
    Synonyms:
    desert varnish

Synonyms of rock varnish

Forms of rock varnish

pluralrock varnishes

Questions about rock varnish

What does rock varnish mean?
Rock varnish means a dark coating on rock surfaces exposed to the atmosphere, mostly comprising clay and oxides, which grows at only a few micrometers per thousand years; found especially in arid deserts.
What part of speech is rock varnish?
Rock varnish is a noun.
What is the plural of rock varnish?
The plural of rock varnish is rock varnishes.

Words near rock varnish in the dictionary

  1. rock thrushes
  2. rock tripe
  3. rock tripes
  4. rock up
  5. Rock Valley
  6. rock varnish
  7. rock varnishes
  8. rock wallabies
  9. rock wallaby
  10. rock water
  11. rock waters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rock varnish (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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