Standard Lemma guide

maceral

noun · 1 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.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A component of coal or oil shale.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Inertinite, vitrinite and liptinite are macerals.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Latin mācerō (“macerate”) + -al, after mineral. Coined by British birth control campaigner and paleontologist Marie Stopes in 1935.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Polish: macerał — a component of coal or oil shale
  • Russian: мацера́л (macerál) — a component of coal or oil shale
  • Ukrainian: мацера́л (macerál) — a component of coal or oil shale