sphalerite
/ˈsfeɪ.ləˌɹaɪt/noun
sphalerite is a noun meaning “A yellow, brown or black, sometimes red, green white or colorless mineral with cubic crystals, of a chemical formula (Zn,Fe)S, often containing also…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-P-H-A-L-E-R-I-T-E and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 18 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of sphalerite is sphalerites.
What does sphalerite mean?
noun
- 1
A yellow, brown or black, sometimes red, green white or colorless mineral with cubic crystals, of a chemical formula (Zn,Fe)S, often containing also minor metals, such as cadmium, gallium, germanium and indium.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce sphalerite?
- /ˈsfæl.əˌɹaɪt/
- US /ˈsfeɪ.ləˌɹaɪt/
Sphalerite has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Tesco250-sphalerite.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of sphalerite
- sphalerites plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is sphalerite?
Sphalerite appears about once in every 18 million words in written English, the 128,787th 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).
Sphalerite in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense mineral:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sphalérite |
| German | Sphalerit, Zinkblende |
| Portuguese | esfalerita, blenda |
| Spanish | esfalerita, blenda |
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 sphalerite come from?
From Ancient Greek σφαλερός (sphalerós, “unstable, unsteady, precarious”) + -ite; named in 1847.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).