silica

Origin: 1585–95; in Latin silex (“hard stone, flint”). Subsequently, silicon was identified by the chemist Antoine Lavoisier in 1787 as a component element of the silex[1] or silicis. Compare silicate.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪl.ɪ.kə/

silica (countable and uncountable, plural silicas)

1. Silicon dioxide.
2. Any of the silica group of the silicate minerals.
   • 1993, Historic American Building Survey, Town of Clayburg: Refractories Company Town, National Park Service, 2:

     Its Blair County property was sited at the foot of ganister-covered Dunnings Mountain to compete with the Mount Union plants making silica bricks for the steel industry.

• E551 when used as an anti-caking agent

• silicon

• quartz
• sand

• Liasic, salici, sialic