Standard Lemma guide

calcite

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈkælˌsaɪt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: K AE1 L S AY2 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A very widely distributed crystalline form of calcium carbonate, CaCO3, found as limestone, chalk and marble.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: chemistry, geography, geology, mineralogy, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a common mineral consisting of crystallized calcium carbonate; a major constituent of limestone

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: spar

Narrower terms: alabaster, oriental alabaster, onyx marble, Mexican onyx, chalk, Iceland spar

History

Etymology

From Latin calx + -ite.

Across languages

Translations

44 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: կալցիտ (kalcʻit) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Basque: kaltzita — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Bulgarian: калцит (kalcit) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Catalan: calcita — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Chinese Mandarin: 方解石 (fāngjiěshí) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Chinese Mandarin: 冰洲石 (bīngzhōushí) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Czech: vápenec — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Czech: kalcit — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Danish: calcit — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Dutch: calciet — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Esperanto: kalcito — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Estonian: kaltsiit — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Finnish: kalsiitti — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Finnish: kalkkisälpä — calcium carbonate mineral
  • French: calcite — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Galician: calcita — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Georgian: კალციტი (ḳalciṭi) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • German: Calcit — calcium carbonate mineral
  • German: Kalkspat — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Greek: ασβεστίτης (asvestítis) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Hungarian: kalcit — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Icelandic: kalkspat — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Icelandic: kalsít — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Irish: cailcít — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Italian: calcite — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Japanese: 方解石 (hōkaiseki) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Kazakh: кальцит (kalsit) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Korean: 방해석 (banghaeseok) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Latvian: kalcīts — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Lithuanian: kalcitas — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Norwegian Bokmål: kalsitt — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: kalsitt — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Occitan: calcita — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Polish: kalcyt — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Portuguese: calcita — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Portuguese: calcite — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Romanian: calcit — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Russian: кальци́т (kalʹcít) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Serbo-Croatian: калцит — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Serbo-Croatian: kalcit — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Spanish: calcita — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Swedish: kalcit — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Thai: แคลไซต์ (kɛl-sái) — calcium carbonate mineral
  • Turkish: kalsit — calcium carbonate mineral
Real reading context

calcite in complete knowledge articles