diabase

noun

di·​a·​base ˈdī-ə-ˌbās 

1

archaic : diorite

2

chiefly British : an altered basalt

3

: a fine-grained rock of the composition of gabbro but with an ophitic texture

diabasic

ˌdī-ə-ˈbā-sik 

adjective

Examples of diabase in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These rocks are one of the best terrestrial analogs to Martian rocks, and Katayama and Akamatsu found that in wet conditions the diabase rocks returned similar seismic signatures as what SEIS was detecting. —Keith Cooper, Space.com, 17 Mar. 2025

The park’s seven-acre boulder field contains piles of large diabase (an igneous rock) stones formed some 175 million years ago that sound like bells when hit with a hammer. —Emily Matchar, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Jan. 2025

In sixty years at this writing, the house, resting on the diabase bedrock, has not settled a sixteenth of an inch. —John McPhee, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2025

It’s made of diabase traprock, which contains iron that causes the cliffs to look lumpen and rusty in the wrong light, precise and resplendent in the right one. —Christian Wiman, Harper's magazine, 20 Jan. 2020

Word History

Etymology

French, probably from Greek diabasis act of crossing over, from diabainein to cross over, from dia- + bainein to go — more at come

First Known Use

1811, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for diabase

• aerospace
• anatase
• anyplace
• commonplace
• cyberspace
• database
• diastase
• dnase
• elastase
• fireplace
• hyperspace
• interface