Ancient Greek word root · Earth & Sky

lith-: stone

lith- is an Ancient Greek root meaning “stone”. Learn its variants and explore 7 connected words.

Meaning and variants

Meaning: stone

Root forms: lith-, litho-, -lite

Source word: λίθος — a stone

Word family and examples

• monolith

  a large single upright block of stone

• lithography

  The process of printing an image by drawing the image with a water-repellent material onto a hard, flat surface (typically metal), then copying the surface by applying water and ink (or the equivalent) to it and pressing another material against it.

• lithograph

  A printed image produced by lithography.

• megalithic

  Of or pertaining to megaliths, to the people who made them, or to the period when they were made.

• zeolite

  Any of several minerals, aluminosilicates of sodium, potassium, calcium or magnesium, that have a porous structure (originally, those which swelled and gave off water when heated); they are used in water softeners, in ion exchange chromatography, and as industrial catalysts.

• regolith

  The layer of loose rock, dust, sand, and soil, resting on the bedrock, that constitutes the surface layer of most dry land on Earth, the Moon, and other large solid aggregated celestial objects. Submarine regolith also exists.

• rhyolite

  An igneous, volcanic (extrusive) rock, of felsic composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture.

Root connections help with vocabulary recall. They are not a complete etymological history, and a spelling match alone does not prove a relationship.

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