Meaning & use
igneous
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Relating to rock that formed when hot melted material cooled and became solid.
Grammar: Used mainly before a noun: igneous rock, igneous activity. It is not usually used after a verb.
Patterns
- igneous rock
- igneous rocks
- igneous activity
The cliffs are made of hard igneous rock that formed deep underground.
Granite is an igneous rock, so it began as melted material inside the earth.
Students compared samples of igneous and sedimentary rock in the lab.
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Relating to the heat and melting processes that produce such rock.
Grammar: A technical use before nouns such as activity, intrusion, or body.
Patterns
- igneous activity
- igneous intrusion
Igneous activity in the region pushed melted rock up toward the surface.
The map shows a large igneous intrusion running under the valley.
Common combinations
- igneous rock
- Basalt is a dark igneous rock found on the ocean floor.
- igneous rocks
- The island is built almost entirely of igneous rocks.
- igneous activity
- Volcanoes are signs of igneous activity below the surface.
- igneous intrusion
- An igneous intrusion cut through the older layers of stone.
- igneous and sedimentary
- The course teaches students to tell igneous and sedimentary rocks apart.
Synonyms and how they differ
- volcanic
- Use volcanic for igneous rock that cooled quickly at the surface; igneous is the wider word and also covers rock that cooled slowly underground.
- magmatic
- A more specialist word for things connected with magma; igneous is the everyday term in school geology.
Word family
- igneousness noun
- A rare noun for the quality of being igneous; learners almost never need it.
Commonly confused: igneous or indigenous? igneous or ingenious?
igneous vs indigenous
These sound similar but mean very different things. Indigenous describes people, plants, or animals native to a place, while igneous describes rock formed from cooling melted material.
igneous vs ingenious
Ingenious means clever and original, as in an ingenious plan. Igneous only describes rock and geological processes.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'igneous' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Igneous' describes rock formed from cooled melted material, so it fits 'igneous rock' in the second option. Option 1 misspells 'ingenious', option 3 confuses it with 'indigenous', and option 4 wrongly uses it for a clever remark.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “igneous”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.