What does quartz mean?
Word: Quartz
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Quartz means a hard, common mineral, often found as clear or white crystals.
Sounds like: quarts (units for measuring liquid; one British quart is about 1.1 litres)
How do you spell quartz?
Syllables: quartz
Tricky part: It ends in tz, a rare ending in English that came with the word from German. Few other English words finish this way.
Watch out for: quarz, qwartz, kwartz
Memory tip: A quartz watch goes tick, then sleeps: t for tick, z for zzz.
Quartz in a sentence
Example 1: Rose quartz gets its soft pink colour from tiny traces of other minerals.
Example 2: We found a white vein of quartz running through the dark rock.
Example 3: My aunt's ring is set with a polished piece of quartz.
Fun Fact
English took the word from German in the 1700s. The mineral is very hard: it scores 7 out of 10 on the Mohs scale, on which diamond scores 10.
Practise the CREST Way
Mingle-Mangle
The jumbled letters in the sentence hide a word. Choose it.
The cave guide shone a torch on a wall of sparkling qrzuat.
a) quarry
b) quarrel
c) quarter
d) quartz
Show answer
d) quartz. A z in the jumble decides this at once.
Spell-o-Spell
One of these words is spelt right. Pick the meaning of that word.
1. granit 2. limstone 3. marbel 4. quartz
a) a very hard grey or pink rock used in building
b) a smooth stone polished for floors and statues
c) a white or grey rock often used to make cement
d) a glassy mineral used in watches and electronics
Show answer
d) a glassy mineral used in watches and electronics. Granite ends in e, limestone keeps the e of lime, and marble ends in le.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
quaartz
a) u
b) a
c) q
d) r
Show answer
b) a. The vowel after the qu is written only once.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our geology teacher passed round a lump of quartz from a quarry in Rajasthan and asked us to discribe its colour and shape.
a) geology
b) quarry
c) quartz
d) discribe
Show answer
d) discribe. Describe opens with de, not di.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Why do many everyday wristwatches contain quartz?
a) it stops the battery from running down
b) its colour shows the time of day
c) a tiny piece vibrates at a steady rate
d) it makes the watch strap stronger
Show answer
c) a tiny piece vibrates at a steady rate
2. Where would you most likely find quartz?
a) in the shell of a sea snail
b) in the bark of a neem tree
c) in the sand on a beach
d) in the feathers of a peacock
Show answer
c) in the sand on a beach
