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shale

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shale

  • /ʃeɪl/

Rhymes with -eɪl

Where it comes from

From Middle English schale (“shell, husk; scale”), from Old English sċealu (“shell, husk, pod”), from Proto-West Germanic *skalu, from Proto-Germanic *skalō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”), from *(s)kel- (“to split, cleave”).

See also West Frisian skaal (“dish”), Dutch schaal (“shell”), schalie (“shale”), German Schale (“husk, pod”); also Lithuanian skalà (“splinter”), Old Church Slavonic скала (skala, “rock, stone”), Polish skała (“rock”), Albanian halë (“fish bone, splinter”), Sanskrit कल (kalá, “small part”); also Hittite [script needed] (iškalla, “to tear apart, slit open”), Lithuanian skélti (“to split”), Ancient Greek σκάλλω (skállō, “to hoe, harrow”). Doublet of scale. See also shell.

noun shales

  1. countable, uncountable A shell, scale or husk; a cod or pod. the green shales of a bean
  2. countable, uncountable A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure. As on all large green roofs, the soil is not dirt exactly but a gravel-like growing medium of granulated pumice, shales, clays and other minerals.
  3. countable, metonymically, uncountable The shale oil and shale gas segment of the oil and gas industry. American shale’s placid responses to energy whirlwinds are becoming an enduring feature of the U.S. oil industry. In recent years, public drillers under investor pressure to be profitable have treated spiking oil prices as an opportunity to return more cash to shareholders—and lock in prices for fut

verb shales · shaling · shaled

  1. To take off the shell or coat of.

    Similar: shell

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: tar, bituminous, slate, schist, blackboard, shell, whiteboard, nolichucky, claystone, siltstone, argillite, phyllite, mudstone, bituminous shale, argillaceous rock, sedimentary rock

Translations

Every language

noun shell, husk, cod, pod

Españolcáscara, vaina

noun sedimentary rock

Españolesquisto, pizarra, lutita
한국어혈암 hyeoram
日本語頁岩 ketsugan, 泥板岩 deibangan
中文頁岩 /页岩 yèyán
Portuguêsfolhelho
Françaisschiste
DeutschTonstein, Ölschiefer, Schieferton, Schiefergestein, Bitumenschiefer, Schwarzschiefer
Italianoscisto
Русскийсла́нец slánec

verb to take off the shell, husk, cod, pod

Françaisécoquiller, décoquiller, écaler, décortiquer
Deutschentspelzen, schälen, enthülsen

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MLA

"shale." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shale. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

shale. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shale

Chicago

"shale." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shale.

BibTeX
@misc{shale_2026,
  title = {shale},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shale},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}