shale
A shell, scale or huskA shell, scale or husk; a cod or pod.
» Algeria has massive quantities of shale oil that could be extracted through fracking.
Meaning
3 senses(countable, uncountable)A shell, scale or husk; a cod or pod.
(countable, uncountable)A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
Tonstein, Ölschiefer, Schieferton
сла́нецslánec
a sedimentary rock formed by the deposition of successive layers of clay
(countable, metonymically, uncountable)The shale oil and shale gas segment of the oil and gas industry.
Examples
12 sentencesAlgeria has massive quantities of shale oil that could be extracted through fracking.
Fracking is a type of geo-engineering to get oil out of shale.
The geologist noted a tabular layer of anthracite running between two bands of shale.
Shale gas is more expensive than conventional gas.
Shale rock is a sedimentary rock made up of clay, compacted together by pressure.
Translations
8 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English schale (“shell, husk; scale”), from Old English sċealu (“shell, husk,From Middle English schale (“shell, husk; scale”), from Old English sċealu (“shell, husk, pod”), from Proto-West Germanic *skalu, from Proto-Germanic *skalō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”), from *(s)kel- (“to split, cleave”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: shalesWord family
19 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable