porcelain
A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and…A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as a symbol of the fragility, elegance, etc. traditionally associated with porcelain goods.
Recorded UK: Speaker: Vealhurl Recorder: Vealhurl, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
» Are these cups porcelain?
Sind das Porzellantassen? — Vortarulo
Эти чашки фарфоровые? — Selena777
_undertoad · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRTranslations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Examples
32 sentencesAre these cups porcelain?
ruЭти чашки фарфоровые? — Selena777
deSind das Porzellantassen? — Vortarulo
He wrote a book on porcelain.
Він написав книжку про порцеляну. — Internecivus
deEr hat ein Buch über Porzellan geschrieben. — BraveSentry
Both pieces are made from porcelain.
deBeide Stücke sind aus Porzellan. — samueldora
Meaning
8 senses(uncountable, usually)A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as a symbol of the fragility, elegance, etc. traditionally associated with porcelain goods.
Tableware and toilets are both made of porcelain.
Porzellan
фарфо́рfarfór
фарфо́рfarfór, порцеля́наporceljána
(uncountable, usually)Synonym of china: porcelain tableware.
He set the table with our porcelain and stemware.
(countable, usually plural)An object made of porcelain, (particularly) art objects or items of tableware.
The museum has an extensive collection of rare Chinese porcelains.
Porzellan
фарфо́рfarfór
More meanings 5
(countable, uncountable)The set of Git commands, such as `git commit` or `git checkout`, which control the high-level state of the repository, each typically combining the behaviour of multiple plumbing commands.
Coordinate term: plumbing
(capitalized, countable, often)A kind of pigeon with deep brown and off-white feathers.
(obsolete, uncountable)Synonym of kaolin: the kind of clay traditionally used in China to manufacture porcelain.
(countable, rare)Synonym of cowrie.
(countable, historical, obsolete)Synonym of wampum: strings of shells, beads, etc. used as ornamentation or currency; the composite shells, beads, etc.
- ceramic ware made of a more or less translucent ceramic
Origin
Borrowed from Middle French porcelaine (“cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware”), from Old ItalBorrowed from Middle French porcelaine (“cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware”), from Old Italian porcellana (“cowrie; china, chinaware”), from Italian porcello (“piglet”). The material was so called because of its resemblance to the shell of the cowrie. Why the cowrie was named with a word meaning “piglet” is unclear.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: porcelains| Singular | porcelain |
|---|---|
| Plural | porcelains |
regular
Synonyms
5 synonymsWord family
19 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.