argillaceous
/ɑɹd͡ʒɪlˈeɪʃəs/adjective
argillaceous is an adjective meaning “Pertaining to clay; made of, containing, or resembling clay; clayey” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-R-G-I-L-L-A-C-E-O-U-S, and it appears about once in every 31 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does argillaceous mean?
adjective
- 1
Pertaining to clay; made of, containing, or resembling clay; clayey.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce argillaceous?
- UK /ɑːd͡ʒɪlˈeɪʃəs/
- US /ɑɹd͡ʒɪlˈeɪʃəs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Neøn-argillaceous.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of argillaceous
- more argillaceous comparative
- most argillaceous superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is argillaceous?
Argillaceous appears about once in every 31 million words in written English, the 169,822nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Argillaceous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense pertaining to clay:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | argilacé, argileux |
| German | tonartig, tonhaltig |
| Portuguese | argiloso, argiláceo |
| Spanish | arcilloso |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does argillaceous come from?
From Latin argillaceus, from argilla (“clay”), from Ancient Greek ἄργιλλος (árgillos, “white clay, potter's earth”), from ἀργός (argós, “white”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).