sandstone
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
a type of rock formed from sand that has been pressed together naturally over millions of years.
a clastic sedimentary rock consisting of sand-sized mineral particles or rock fragments. Uncountable when referring to the material and countable when referring to specific geological formations.
Simple“The old church was built using local red sandstone from the nearby hills.”
In context“The canyon walls are composed of layers of ancient sandstone, revealing millions of years of geological history through their distinct orange and red bands.”
Synonyms
“The red front door to our tiny sandstone cottage is shut tight.”
“The focus of the research is the Altar Stone, a six-ton sandstone megalith located at the center of Stonehenge.”
From Middle English sandston, from Old English sandstān, from Proto-West Germanic sandastain (“sandstone, chisel, gravel”), equivalent to sand + stone. Cognate with West Frisian sânstien (“sandstone”), Saterland Frisian Soundsteen (“sandstone”), Dutch zandsteen (“sandstone”), German Low German Sandsteen (“sandstone”), German Sandstein (“sandstone”), Danish sandsten (“sandstone”), Swedish sandsten (“sandstone”), Icelandic sandsteinn (“sandstone”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.