shale.

A fine-grained sedimentary rock that commonly splits into thin layers.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• shale layer
• shale cliff

On the page

The cliff exposed a dark shale layer.

Thin shale fragments covered the path.

The rock split along the shale’s layers.

Usage notes

Primary category: environment. Forms: Singular shale; plural shales for types. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.