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porcelain

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Porcelain is a hard, white non-porous type of ceramic.

(noun)

An example of porcelain is a type of veneers for teeth.
An example of porcelain is a set of English dinner ware.

See porcelain in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a hard, white, nonporous, translucent variety of ceramic ware, made of kaolin, feldspar, and quartz or flint
porcelain dishes or ornaments, collectively

Origin: Fr porcelaine < It porcellana, orig., a kind of shell < porcella, little pig, vulva (< L porcellus, dim. of porcus, pig, vulva): see farrow

adjective

made of porcelain

Related Forms:

porcelaneous adjective or porcellaneous

See porcelain in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A hard, white, translucent ceramic made by firing a pure clay and then glazing it with variously colored fusible materials; china.
An object made of this substance.

Origin:

Origin: French porcelaine, cowry shell, porcelain

Origin: , from Old French

Origin: , from Old Italian porcellana

Origin: , from feminine of porcellano, of a young sow (from the shell's resemblance to a pig's back)

Origin: , from porcella, young sow

Origin: , diminutive of porca, sow

Origin: , from Latin

Origin: , feminine of porcus, pig; see porko- in Indo-European roots

Related Forms: