VOLCANIC

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does volcanic mean? 

• VOLCANIC (adjective)
  The adjective VOLCANIC has 3 senses:

1. relating to or produced by or consisting of volcanoes

2. explosively unstable

3. igneous rock produced by eruption and solidified on or near the earth's surface; rhyolite or andesite or basalt

  Familiarity information: VOLCANIC used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VOLCANIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or produced by or consisting of volcanoes

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

a volcanic cone is a conical mountain or hill built up of material from volcanic eruptions

Pertainym:

volcano (a mountain formed by volcanic material)

Derivation:

volcano (a mountain formed by volcanic material)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Explosively unstable

Context example:

a volcanic temper

Similar:

unstable (lacking stability or fixity or firmness)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Igneous rock produced by eruption and solidified on or near the earth's surface; rhyolite or andesite or basalt

Context example:

volcanic rock includes the volcanic glass obsidian

Similar:

extrusive (of rock material; forced out while molten through cracks in the earth's surface)

 Context examples 

For a moment I thought it was the lava-glow from some volcanic action; but this could not be so.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Several earlier studies suggested that Ina was quite young and might have formed due to localized volcanic activity.

(Evidence for Young Lunar Volcanism, NASA)

Each individual measurement was used to compute the temperature of the volcanic gas.

(Size matters: if you are a bubble of volcanic gas, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A lonely 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain on Ceres is likely volcanic in origin, and the dwarf planet may have a weak, temporary atmosphere.

(Ceres' Geological Activity, Ice Revealed in New Research, NASA)

Volcanic eruptions over the past 70,000 or so years produced silica-rich magmas and hydrothermal waters that may have contributed to the Oregon deposit's antibacterial properties.

(New answer to MRSA, other 'superbug' infections: clay minerals?, NSF)

"But the areas of known volcanic activity in Greenland are several hundred miles away. Also, a volcano should have a clear positive magnetic anomaly, and we don’t see that at all."

(NASA Finds Possible Second Impact Crater Under Greenland Ice, NASA)

She is impetuous—volcanic, I was about to say.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“They clung to the inside and stuck together. When we did the same experiment with sand and volcanic ash using Earth-like conditions, all of it came out. Nothing stuck.”

('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)

He was never so resolute, never so strong, never so full of volcanic energy, as at present.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A similar volcanic eruption in Alaska in 2008 was found to be associated with an increase in the local salmon population.

(Scientists report skyrocketing phyotplankton population in aftermath of Kīlauea eruption, Wikinews)