pumice
part of speech
noun (pumice — uncountable; a pumice stone, pumice stones)
meaning for a pupil
1) Pumice is a very light, rough grey rock full of tiny holes, made when frothy lava from a volcano cools quickly; it can float on water. tree →
2) A pumice stone is a piece of this rock used to rub away hard skin, for example on your feet. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons on rocks, pumice is an igneous rock formed from volcanic lava; because it is full of gas bubbles, it floats — a surprising fact for a rock. After some eruptions, rafts of floating pumice drift on the sea. In everyday life, pumice stones are in bathrooms. Common phrases: «pumice stone», «a raft of pumice», «floating pumice».
examples
- Pumice is the only rock that floats on water. tree →
- Pumice forms when bubbly lava cools very quickly. tree →
- Nan uses a pumice stone on her heels. tree →
- After the eruption, a raft of pumice floated across the Pacific. tree →
- We tested rocks in water, and the pumice floated. tree →
- Pumice is rough, light and full of holes. tree →
- Some toothpastes and cleaners contain powdered pumice. tree →
note
Uncountable as a material; «a pumice stone» for one piece. Say PUM-iss. Strictly, not every pumice floats for ever — it sinks when its holes fill with water.
In the corpora
- Pumice is a volcanic rock so full of gas bubbles that it can float on water.
- Lava full of gas bubbles can cool quickly into rock with many small holes, such as pumice.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «pumice» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.