Word.ws English Dictionary

stalactite

Syllables: sta·lac·tite/ˈstælæktaɪt/US/stəˈlækˌtaɪt/

stalactite noun: a secondary mineral deposit of calcium carbonate or another mineral, in shapes similar to icicles, that hangs from the roof of a cave.

stalactite: a secondary mineral deposit of calcium carbonate or another mineral, in shapes similar to icicles,...
Image: Renata Shibuta Marques, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

stalactite (plural stalactites)

  1. A secondary mineral deposit of calcium carbonate or another mineral, in shapes similar to icicles, that hangs from the roof of a cave.
    • In one place, near at hand, a stalagmite had been slowly growing up from the ground for ages, builded by the water-drip from a stalactite overhead.1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXIII, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC
    • There is the Hang Ken cave with its waterfalls spilling into large lagoons, shimmering goldlike mineral deposits and soaring columns created over thousands of years when stalactites hanging from the cave roof met stalagmite formations building from the cave floor.2014 October 31, David W. Lloyd, “Deep in Vietnam, Exploring a Colossal Cave”, in The New York Times

stalactite meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Tagalog and Indonesian

stalactite in Tamil

கசிதுளிவீழ், தொங்கு ஊசிப்பாறை, கூரைப்படிகக்கூம்பு, சுண்ணக்கல் விழுது

stalactite in Kannada

ತೂಗುತೊಂಗಲು

stalactite in Tagalog

mineral deposit hanging from the roof of a cave
estalaktita, tulumbato

stalactite in Indonesian

mineral deposit hanging from the roof of a cave
stalaktit
More languagesFewer languages
stalactite in Thai
หินย้อย hǐn-yɔ́ɔi
stalactite in Vietnamese
thạch nhũ, nhũ đá

Forms of stalactite

pluralstalactites

Origin of stalactite

From New Latin stalactītēs, from Ancient Greek σταλακτός (stalaktós, “dripping; dropping”) + Latin -ītēs (suffix with the sense ‘belonging to’ forming adjectives) (modelled after the names of stones ending in -ites). Σταλακτός (Stalaktós) is derived from σταλάσσειν (stalássein, “to drip; to let (something) drip”) + -τός (-tós, suffix forming adjectives denoting possibility from verbs).

Words formed from stalactite

Questions about stalactite

What does stalactite mean?
Stalactite means a secondary mineral deposit of calcium carbonate or another mineral, in shapes similar to icicles, that hangs from the roof of a cave.
What is stalactite in Tamil?
Stalactite in Tamil is கசிதுளிவீழ், தொங்கு ஊசிப்பாறை, கூரைப்படிகக்கூம்பு. See Stalactite meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is stalactite?
Stalactite is a noun.
How do you pronounce stalactite?
Stalactite is pronounced /ˈstælæktaɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of stalactite?
The plural of stalactite is stalactites.

Words near stalactite in the dictionary

  1. stakings
  2. stalactic
  3. stalactical
  4. stalactiform
  5. stalactital
  6. stalactite
  7. stalactited
  8. stalactites
  9. stalactitic
  10. stalactitical
  11. stalactitiform

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stalactite (page history and authors); stalactite (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stalactite (Kannada Wiktionary) (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)-Vealhurl-stalactite.wav.

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