calcine

calcine — verb

  • calcinepresent simple I / you / we / they
  • calcines3rd person singular
  • calcining-ing form
  • calcinedpast simple

1. to treat a substance by heating it to a very high temperature — just below its m

1.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to treat a substance by heating it to a very high temperature — just below its melting point — so that unwanted elements are driven off as gas or a chemical change such as oxidation takes place.

Example

The factory calcines limestone to produce quicklime for construction use.

calcine + object (limestone, a specific mineral)

Hao's research team calcined the ore samples at twelve hundred degrees to extract pure zinc oxide.

Common collocations
  • calcine limestone
  • calcine ore
  • calcine clay
  • calcine at [temperature]
Synonyms
  • roast

    more specific to heating metal ores in air to cause oxidation, often with a different temperature profile

  • fire

    broader term; can mean heating pottery or ceramics, not necessarily for chemical change

Grammar Patterns

calcine + object (substance/material)

Usage Note

Usually refers to industrial or laboratory heating of inorganic materials such as ores, limestone, or clay. The object is the substance being treated.

Common Mistakes

They calcined the steel to make it harder.
They calcined the limestone to produce calcium oxide.
calcine applies to minerals and ores being heated without melting, not to metalworking processes like annealing or tempering.

2. of a substance, to be changed by very strong heating that approaches but does no

2.verbintransitiveC1
Definition

of a substance, to be changed by very strong heating that approaches but does not reach its melting point, usually resulting in the removal of volatile components or a chemical transformation.

Example

The bauxite calcines at around one thousand degrees and turns into alumina.

calcines + at [temperature], showing the material as subject

Nadia watched the gypsum calcine inside the furnace until it became a fine white powder.

Common collocations
  • calcine at [high temperature]
  • calcine in a kiln
  • calcine to [product]
Synonyms

Grammar Patterns

calcine + at [temperature]

calcine + in [equipment]

Usage Note

The subject is always the material being heated, not the person or machine doing the heating. Distinguish from sense 1: here the substance is the grammatical subject and undergoes the change itself.

Common Mistakes

The technician calcined.
The ore calcined in the kiln for six hours.
sense 2 is intransitive and requires the substance as the subject, not the person performing the operation.

calcine — noun

Word family

  • calcination
    nounC1
  • calciner
    nounC2
  • calcined
    adjectiveC1
  • recalcine
    verbC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four terms involve applying heat to a material, but they differ in purpose and temperature range. Calcine specifically means heating a substance to a high temperature without melting it, to remove volatile matter or cause oxidation — it is the most precise term for this controlled process. Roast is used in metallurgy for heating ore in air to convert it to an oxide, often at somewhat lower temperatures. Fire is a broader verb for heating clay or ceramics to harden them, without the chemical-change focus of calcine. Smelt goes further by actually melting the ore to separate the metal, which actively contradicts calcine's 'without melting' condition. In practice, a metallurgist calcines ore before smelting it: 'The copper ore is first calcined to drive off sulfur, then smelted in the furnace.'

calcine ↗roast ↗fire ↗smelt ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • drive off volatile matter
  • undergo calcination
  • remove impurities

Prepositions

  • at [temperature]
  • in [kiln/furnace]
  • to [product]

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Calcine comes from the Latin word 'calcinare', meaning 'to burn lime', which itself comes from 'calx' (lime or limestone). The connection to lime is central: heating limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce quicklime is one of the oldest and most common calcination processes. The word entered English through French in the 14th century, originally used in alchemy.

First known use

14th century

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense Noun