Agate vs. Marble — What's the Difference?

Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, consisting of a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks.

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated, although there are exceptions.

A fine-grained, fibrous variety of chalcedony with colored bands or irregular clouding.

A metamorphic rock formed by alteration of limestone or dolomite, often irregularly colored by impurities, and used especially in architecture and sculpture.

A playing marble made of agate or a glass imitation of it; an aggie.

A piece of this rock.

A tool with agate parts, such as a burnisher tipped with agate.

A sculpture made from this rock.

(Printing) A type size, about 5 1/2 points.

Something resembling or suggesting metamorphic rock, as in being very hard, smooth, or cold

A semitransparent, uncrystallized silicate mineral and semiprecious stone, presenting various tints in the same specimen, with colors delicately arranged and often curved in parallel alternating dark and light stripes or bands, or blended in clouds; various authorities call it a variety of chalcedony, a variety of quartz, or a combination of the two.

A small hard ball, usually of glass, used in children's games.

The size of type between pearl and nonpareil, standardized as 2-point.

Marbles (used with a sing. verb) Any of various games played with marbles.

One fourteenth of an inch.

Marbles Slang Common sense; sanity

A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals.

Marbling.

(countable) A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.;—so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.

To mottle and streak (paper, for example) with colors and veins in imitation of marble.

(countable) A marble made from agate.

Composed of metamorphic rock

A testicle.

Resembling metamorphic rock in consistency, texture, venation, color, or coldness.

(obsolete) On the way; agoing.

A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.

On the way; agoing; as, to be agate; to set the bells agate.

A small ball used in games, originally of marble but now usually of glass or ceramic.

A semipellucid, uncrystallized variety of quartz, presenting various tints in the same specimen. Its colors are delicately arranged in stripes or bands, or blended in clouds.

Statues made from marble.

A kind of type, larger than pearl and smaller than nonpareil; in England called ruby.

(transitive) To cause (something to have) the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example by mixing viscous ingredients incompletely, or by applying paint or other colorants unevenly.

A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals.

(intransitive) To get or have the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example due to the incomplete mixing of viscous ingredients, or the uneven application of paint or other colorants.

A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.; - so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.

(transitive) To cause meat, usually beef, pork, or lamb, to be interlaced with fat so that its appearance resembles that of marble.

An impure form of quartz consisting of banded chalcedony; used as a gemstone and for making mortars and pestles

To become interlaced with fat; (of fat) to interlace through meat.

To lace or be laced throughout.

Made of, or resembling, marble.

(figurative) Cold; hard; unfeeling.

A massive, compact limestone; a variety of calcite, capable of being polished and used for architectural and ornamental purposes. The color varies from white to black, being sometimes yellow, red, and green, and frequently beautifully veined or clouded. The name is also given to other rocks of like use and appearance, as serpentine or verd antique marble, and less properly to polished porphyry, granite, etc.

A thing made of, or resembling, marble, as a work of art, or record, in marble; or, in the plural, a collection of such works; as, the Arundel or Arundelian marbles; the Elgin marbles.

A little ball of glass, marble, porcelain, or of some other hard substance, used as a plaything by children; or, in the plural, a child's game played with marbles.

Made of, or resembling, marble; as, a marble mantel; marble paper.

Cold; hard; unfeeling; as, a marble breast or heart.

To stain or vein like marble; to variegate in color; as, to marble the edges of a book, or the surface of paper.

A hard crystalline metamorphic rock that takes a high polish; used for sculpture and as building material

A small ball of glass that is used in various games

A sculpture carved from marble

Paint or stain like marble;