ALABASTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does alabaster mean? 

• ALABASTER (noun)
  The noun ALABASTER has 3 senses:

1. a compact fine-textured, usually white gypsum used for carving

2. a hard compact kind of calcite

3. a very light white

  Familiarity information: ALABASTER used as a noun is uncommon.

• ALABASTER (adjective)
  The adjective ALABASTER has 1 sense:

1. of or resembling alabaster

  Familiarity information: ALABASTER used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALABASTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A compact fine-textured, usually white gypsum used for carving

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("alabaster" is a kind of...):

gypsum (a common white or colorless mineral (hydrated calcium sulphate) used to make cements and plasters (especially plaster of Paris))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A hard compact kind of calcite

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

alabaster; Mexican onyx; onyx marble; oriental alabaster

Hypernyms ("alabaster" is a kind of...):

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

Sense 3

Meaning:

A very light white

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("alabaster" is a kind of...):

white; whiteness (the quality or state of the achromatic color of greatest lightness (bearing the least resemblance to black))

• ALABASTER (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or resembling alabaster

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

alabaster; alabastrine

Context example:

alabaster statue

Pertainym:

alabaster (a compact fine-textured, usually white gypsum used for carving)

 Context examples 

I never spoke to it, and it never spoke to me, in words; but I read its eyes, and it read mine; and our speechless colloquy was to this effect—It was a fairy, and come from Elf-land, it said; and its errand was to make me happy: I must go with it out of the common world to a lonely place—such as the moon, for instance—and it nodded its head towards her horn, rising over Hay-hill: it told me of the alabaster cave and silver vale where we might live.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)