Graphite

How to spell graphite

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce graphite

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does graphite mean?

1. nounA soft, grey crystalline form of carbon used in pencils, lubricants, and electrodes.

Graphite in a sentence

• The core of a standard pencil is made of graphite mixed with clay.

• Engineers value graphite because it conducts electricity and resists high heat.

Where does graphite come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Graphite takes its name from the Greek verb graphein, which literally meant 'to write' or 'to draw', because the soft grey mineral leaves a clear mark on paper and has long been used in pencils. The modern term was coined in 1789 by the German mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner, who fashioned the German word Graphit from that Greek root and added the standard mineral ending. English adopted the spelling 'graphite' soon afterwards, replacing older and rather misleading names such as 'black lead' and 'plumbago', even though the substance contains no lead at all. The same graphein root runs through a whole family of familiar English words, including 'graph', 'photograph', 'autograph' and 'paragraph', and recognising that shared 'graph' element is the surest way to fix the spelling. The trap is the unstressed second syllable, where the schwa sound hides the letter 'i' that the mineral ending demands.

How the word is built

• graph- (from Greek graphein: to write or draw)
• -ite (suffix forming names of minerals)