Meaning & use
quartz
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Meanings
noununcountable
A hard, common mineral made of silicon and oxygen, often found as clear or colored crystals.
Grammar: Uncountable: no plural. Use 'a piece of quartz' or 'a quartz crystal' for a countable piece.
Patterns
- a piece of quartz
- quartz crystal
- made of quartz
The beach is famous for its white quartz sand.
She wore a necklace with a clear quartz pendant.
Quartz is one of the most abundant minerals in the Earth's crust.
noununcountable
A type of crystal used in electronic devices to keep precise time, as in clocks and watches.
Grammar: Uncountable: often used in compounds like 'quartz clock' or 'quartz watch'.
Patterns
- quartz watch
- quartz clock
- quartz crystal oscillator
My new watch has a quartz movement, so it keeps very accurate time.
The clock uses a quartz crystal to vibrate at a steady frequency.
Quartz technology replaced mechanical movements in many watches.
Common combinations
- quartz crystal
- The scientist studied the properties of quartz crystal.
- rose quartz
- Rose quartz is a pink variety often used in jewelry.
- quartz watch
- He bought a quartz watch because it is more accurate than a mechanical one.
- quartz sand
- The glass is made from pure quartz sand.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- quartzite noun
- A hard metamorphic rock made mostly of quartz.
Commonly confused: quartz or quarts?
quartz vs quarts
Quarts is a unit of volume (two pints), while quartz is the mineral. They sound the same but have different spellings.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'quartz' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Quartz is a mineral used in watches, so 'quartz watch' is correct. Option 0 is wrong because 'quartz' is not a unit of volume; the unit is 'quart'. Option 2 is wrong because quartz is not a unit of distance. Option 3 is wrong because quartz is not a sound.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quartz”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.