What is "crystal"

Crystal \Crys"tal\ (kr[i^]s"tal), n. [OE. cristal, F. cristal, L. crystallum crystal, ice, fr. Gr. kry`stallos, fr. kry`os icy cold, frost; cf. AS. crystalla, fr. L. crystallum; prob. akin to E. crust. See Crust, Raw.]

1. (Chem. & Min.) The regular form which a substance tends to assume in solidifying, through the inherent power of cohesive attraction. It is bounded by plane surfaces, symmetrically arranged, and each species of crystal has fixed axial ratios. See Crystallization.

2. The material of quartz, in crystallization transparent or nearly so, and either colorless or slightly tinged with gray, or the like; -- called also rock crystal. Ornamental vessels are made of it. Cf. Smoky quartz, Pebble; also Brazilian pebble, under Brazilian.

3. A species of glass, more perfect in its composition and manufacture than common glass, and often cut into ornamental forms. See Flint glass.

4. The glass over the dial of a watch case.

5. Anything resembling crystal, as clear water, etc.

   The blue crystal of the seas.
   --Byron.

   Blood crystal. See under Blood.

   Compound crystal. See under Compound.

   Iceland crystal, a transparent variety of calcite, or crystallized calcium carbonate, brought from Iceland, and used in certain optical instruments, as the polariscope.

   Rock crystal, or Mountain crystal, any transparent crystal of quartz, particularly of limpid or colorless quartz.

Crystal \Crys"tal\, a. Consisting of, or like, crystal; clear; transparent; lucid; pellucid; crystalline.

Through crystal walls each little mote will peep.
--Shak.

By crystal streams that murmur through the meads.
--Dryden.

The crystal pellets at the touch congeal, And from the ground rebounds the ratting hail.
--H. Brooks.

Old English cristal "clear ice, clear mineral," from Old French cristal (12c., Modern French crystal), from Latin crystallus "crystal, ice," from Greek krystallos, from kryos "frost," from PIE root *kru(s)- "hard, hard outer surface" (see crust). Spelling adopted the Latin form 15c.-17c. The mineral has been so-called since Old English; it was regarded by the ancients as a sort of fossilized ice. As a shortened form of crystal-glass it dates from 1590s. As an adjective, from late 14c.

a. Very clear. n. 1 (context countable English) A solid composed of an array of atoms or molecules possessing long-range order and arranged in a pattern which is periodic in three dimensions. 2 (context countable English) A piece of glimmering, shining mineral resembling ice or glass. 3 (context uncountable English) A fine type of glassware, or the material used to make it. 4 (context uncountable slang English) crystal meth: methamphetamine hydrochloride. 5 The glass over the dial of a watch case.

1. n. a solid formed by the solidification of a chemical and having a highly regular atomic structure

2. a crystalline element used as a component in various electronic devices

3. a rock formed by the solidification of a substance; has regularly repeating internal structure; external plane faces [syn: crystallization]

4. colorless glass made of almost pure silica [syn: quartz glass, quartz, vitreous silica, lechatelierite]

5. glassware made of quartz

6. a protective cover that protects the face of a watch [syn: watch crystal, watch glass]

Crystal is a form of solid matter whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern.

Crystal or Crystals may also refer to:

Crystal is the third album by Crystal Gayle, and rose to the #7 spot on the Billboard Country Albums chart. It was released on August 6, 1976. It contained four charting singles, including two #1 hits: "You Never Miss a Real Good Thing (Till He Says Goodbye)" and "Ready for the Times to Get Better." Another single, "I'll Do It All Over Again," just barely missed being the third chart-topper, stalling out at #2, while "One More Time (Karneval)" could only rise to #31.

Crystal is a young adult novel by Walter Dean Myers. It was first published in 1987 and later republished by Amistad in 2002. The book focuses on Crystal Brown, a 16-year-old African American girl who is destined for stardom when she lands a contract with a modeling agency.

A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents, such as atoms, molecules or ions, are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macroscopic single crystals are usually identifiable by their geometrical shape, consisting of flat faces with specific, characteristic orientations.

The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography. The process of crystal formation via mechanisms of crystal growth is called crystallization or solidification. The word crystal is derived from the Ancient Greek word , meaning both “ ice” and “ rock crystal”, from , "icy cold, frost".

Examples of large crystals include snowflakes, diamonds, and table salt. Most inorganic solids are not crystals but polycrystals, i.e. many microscopic crystals fused together into a single solid. Examples of polycrystals include most metals, rocks, ceramics, and ice. A third category of solids is amorphous solids, where the atoms have no periodic structure whatsoever. Examples of amorphous solids include glass, wax, and many plastics.

Crystal (Crystalia Amaquelin) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Crystal first appeared in Fantastic Four #45 (December 1965) and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.

Within the Marvel Universe, Crystal is a member of a fictional subspecies of humanity known as Inhumans, who develop superhuman abilities when exposed to Terrigen Mist due to genetic modifications made by the Kree. The character possesses the ability to psionically control the four classical elements: earth, fire, air, and water and, by extension, various other natural materials and phenomena such as metals and electricity. Crystal was the first character to be identified as an Inhuman, and is one of the most prominent Inhuman characters. Crystal is a princess of the Inhuman Royal Family and sister of Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans. She often appears with her canine companion, Lockjaw.

The character has regularly appeared as a main character in several comic book titles, including various incarnations of Inhumans as well as Fantastic Four and Avengers. The character is unique in her affiliation with all three of these groups. She is also associated, to a lesser extent, with the X-Men due to the character's previous marriage to Quicksilver, which resulted in their daughter, Luna. Crystal has also appeared in various other Marvel media such as television series and video games, as well as merchandise such as trading cards and action figures.

"Crystal" is a song by the English rock band New Order. It was released in August 2001 as the first single from their seventh album Get Ready. The song entered the UK charts at number 8, attracting considerable attention and praise as the band's comeback single, their first since 1993: on release Joe Tangari of Pitchfork Media called the song as "possibly one of New Order's best singles". Drowned in Sound rated it a 9/10 and described it as "fantastic" and the "confident, strutting return of a band that knows that the music industry has missed it." It is one of the band's fastest and most guitar-orientated singles. The song is notable for a remix contest in which there were thousands of entries around the world. It appears as the first track on the album in a slightly different version, with extended outro and intro.

CRYSTAL is a quantum chemistry ab initio program, designed primarily for calculations on crystals (3 dimensions), slabs (2 dimensions) and polymers (1 dimension) using translational symmetry, but it can also be used for single molecules. It is written by V.R. Saunders, R. Dovesi, C. Roetti, R. Orlando, C.M. Zicovich-Wilson, N.M. Harrison, K. Doll, B. Civalleri, I.J. Bush, Ph. D’Arco, and M. Llunell from Theoretical Chemistry Group at the University of Torino and the Computational Materials Science Group at the Daresbury Laboratory near Warrington in Cheshire, England. The current version is CRYSTAL14, released in June 2014. Earlier versions were CRYSTAL88, CRYSTAL92, CRYSTAL95, CRYSTAL98, CRYSTAL03, CRYSTAL06, and CRYSTAL09.

Crystal is an album by American jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal featuring performances recorded in 1987 and released on the Atlantic label.

"Crystal" is the 19th episode of the first season of the CW television series The Secret Circle, and the series' 19th episode overall. It was aired on April 19, 2012. The episode was written by Micah Schraft and it was directed by Omar Madha.

Crystal is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language designed and developed by Ary Borenszweig and Juan Wajnerman and over one-hundred listed contributors. Crystal is developed as open source software (under the Apache License, Version 2.0) with syntax inspired by Ruby. The language is statically type-checked but does not require that the type of variables or method arguments be specified. This is the result of advanced global type inference. The language is in an active development phase.

Crystal is a common female given name. Variant forms of the name include Kristal, Krystal, Cristal, Krystle and Kristol.

It is a 19th-century coinage, derived from crystal, a transparent quartz gemstone, usually colorless, that can be cut to reflect brilliant light, whose name comes from Ancient Greek "ice". The Greek variant of the name is Crystallia or Krystallia . The television series Dynasty made the name famous in the 1980s with a character named Krystle. Chrystal, a variant spelling, was probably influenced by Greek "gold".