Standard Lemma guide

diorite

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.

  • /ˈdaɪ.əˌɹaɪt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: D AY1 ER0 AY2 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A grey intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of plagioclase feldspar, biotite, hornblende and/or pyroxene.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: geography, geology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a granular crystalline intrusive rock

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: igneous rock

History

Etymology

From French diorite, invented by mineralogist Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847), derived from Ancient Greek διορίζω (diorízō, “distinguish”), from δι- plus ὁρίζω (horízō, “to limit”).

Across languages

Translations

14 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: diorita — Igneous rock
  • Chinese Mandarin: 閃長岩 /闪长岩 (shǎnchángyán) — Igneous rock
  • Finnish: dioriitti — Igneous rock
  • French: diorite — Igneous rock
  • German: Diorit — Igneous rock
  • Italian: diorite — Igneous rock
  • Japanese: 閃緑岩 (senryokugan) — Igneous rock
  • Kazakh: диорит (diorit) — Igneous rock
  • Polish: dioryt — Igneous rock
  • Portuguese: diorito — Igneous rock
  • Russian: диори́т (diorít) — Igneous rock
  • Spanish: diorita — Igneous rock
  • Ukrainian: діори́т (diorýt) — Igneous rock
  • Yiddish: דיאָריט (dyorit) — Igneous rock