graphite

IPA/ˈɡræfaɪt/
KK[ɡrˈæfˌaɪt]IPA/ˈɡræfaɪt/

graphite — noun

1. a soft grey-black mineral made from pure carbon. Graphite is what makes the dark

1.nounB2
Definition

a soft grey-black mineral made from pure carbon. Graphite is what makes the dark mark when you draw with a pencil, and it is also used to help machine parts slide smoothly and inside some nuclear reactors.

Example

Paloma sharpened her pencil and a small pile of graphite dust fell onto the desk.

uncountable noun: graphite dust

The artist preferred soft graphite for shading because it left a darker, smoother line.

collocation: soft graphite

Common collocations
  • graphite pencil
  • graphite powder
  • graphite dust
  • soft graphite
  • natural graphite
Synonyms
  • plumbago

    old-fashioned and technical name for the same mineral; rarely used today outside mineralogy texts

  • black lead

    historical British term; learners may meet it in older novels but it is misleading because no lead is involved

Usage Note

Almost always uncountable; you say 'a piece of graphite' or 'graphite powder', not 'a graphite'. The plural 'graphites' only appears in technical writing about different grades of the material.

Common Mistakes

The pencil is made of lead.
The pencil is made of graphite.
modern pencils have never contained lead; the dark core is graphite mixed with clay.
I bought two graphites at the art shop.
I bought two graphite pencils at the art shop.
graphite is uncountable, so count the object that contains it instead.

Word family

  • graphitic
    adjectiveC2
  • graphitize
    verbC2

Common collocations

Nouns

  • graphite pencil
  • graphite powder
  • graphite dust
  • graphite rod
  • graphite electrode

Phrases

  • a piece of graphite
  • natural graphite
  • synthetic graphite

Prepositions

  • graphite in (pencils, reactors)
  • made of graphite

Etymology

GreekGermanEnglish

Borrowed in the late 1700s from German 'Graphit', which the mineralogist Abraham Werner coined in 1789 from Greek 'graphein' meaning 'to write' — a direct reference to the mineral's main early use, writing on paper.