stinkstone means one of the varieties of calcite, barite, and feldspar that emit a foetid odour on being struck. It carries an Arena rating of 1538, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, stinkstone ranks #317 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #388 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #711 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,073 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
Why “stinkstone” is a great word
A variety of calcite, barite, or feldspar that emits a fetid odor when struck. From stink (meaning a strong, unpleasant smell) + stone (meaning a hard, solid mineral material). Unlike anthraconite (which specifically denotes a black, bituminous limestone) or limestone (a general term for odorless sedimentary rock), stinkstone is defined solely by its visceral, sensory offense—a violent transformation from mute mineral to sulfurous secret at a hammer's blow. It is the miner recoiling in the dark, the museum visitor jerking backward from a seemingly innocent specimen, the geologist's private joke that beauty and foulness share the same molecular address. We trust stone to be what it appears; stinkstone reserves the right to contradict us.
Etymology
From stink + stone.
noun
- One of the varieties of calcite, barite, and feldspar that emit a foetid odour on being struck.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- swinestone 74% match — stinkstone vs stinkstone →
- packstone 62% match — A kind of grain-supported calcareous rock containing lime mud. vs stinkstone →
- anthraconite 61% match — A coal-black variety of calcite or dolomite, usually emitting a foetid smell when rubbed. vs stinkstone →
- bindstone 61% match — A kind of calcareous rock where organisms (such as alga)e encrust the elements during deposition and bind them together. vs stinkstone →
- ballstone 60% match — A rounded mass of unstratified limestone found within stratified limestone beds. vs stinkstone →
- floatstone 59% match — A kind of calcareous rock, more than 10% of which is made up of grains larger than two millimetres, and which is matrix-supported. vs stinkstone →
- boundstone 59% match — A kind of calcareous rock sediment where the original components have been bound together after deposition. vs stinkstone →
- rudstone 59% match — A calcareous rock consisting of coarse limestones supported by grains larger than two millimetres. vs stinkstone →