Standard Crystal Glossary

This glossary of terms will help decipher some of the more esoteric ones you will come across in the crystal energy field.

Banding
The presence colour zoning lines, or "bands", in some minerals.

Botryoidal
Resembles a cluster of grapes. Also known as globular. Crystal -

Crystalline
1) Having a crystal structure. 2) Composed of visible crystals.

Druzy / Drusi
Tiny crystals that cover a specimen

Isometric (crystal system)

A crystal system where all three axes of them are equal in length and lie at 90 from the other. (A cube!)

Inclusion
Materials that are trapped inside a mineral as it is forming.

Japanese twin
Where two single Quartz crystals are joined by the their base at a near 90 angle.

Phantom growth
When a crystal grows and stops growing, than a new growth grows over the old crystal in the same direction, leaving a shadowing of the previous growth within the crystal. Additional growth may be present, leading to more than one phantom in a crystal.

Piezoelectric
Substance that generates an electrical charge when under stress.

Sceptre
Crystal deformity, where the top part of a prismatic crystal protrudes and is wider than the rest of the crystal.

Stalactites
Icicle-like formations on the roof of caverns, created when mineral-rich water drips down from the roof and the dissolved mineral accumulates into the icicle-like formation.

Stalagmites
Tall-domed formations on the bottom of caverns, built up from mineral-rich water that deposits the dissolved mineral on the floor, growing upwards.

Termination
The end of a crystal, that usually refers to its base.

Tumbled
When a crystal is placed in a tumbling machine (tumbler) which smoothes and polishes mineral to enhance its lustre. Rocks and minerals may be naturally tumbled in a fast-flowing stream or river for a long period of time.

Twin
Two or more crystals that inter-grow in a specific method.

Vug
A cavity in rock that is lined with long, slender crystals. A vug, forms when air pockets form in cooling magma and allow crystals to form in the hollow area.