Cement vs. Mortar — What's the Difference?

A cement is a binder, a substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together.

A short smooth-bore gun for firing shells (technically called bombs) at high angles

A building material made by grinding calcined limestone and clay to a fine powder, which can be mixed with water and poured to set as a solid mass or used as an ingredient in making mortar or concrete.

A cup-shaped receptacle in which ingredients are crushed or ground, used in cooking or pharmacy

Portland cement.

A mixture of lime with cement, sand, and water, used in building to bond bricks or stones.

Concrete.

Attack or bombard with a mortar

A substance that hardens to act as an adhesive; glue.

Fix or join using mortar

Something that serves to bind or unite

A vessel in which substances are crushed or ground with a pestle.

(Geology) A chemically precipitated substance that binds particles of clastic rocks.

A machine in which materials are ground and blended or crushed.

(Dentistry) A substance used for filling cavities or anchoring crowns, inlays, or other restorations.

A portable, usually muzzleloading cannon used to fire shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high trajectories.

Variant of cementum.

A shell fired by such a cannon.

To join or cover with cement

Any of several similar devices, such as one that shoots life lines across a stretch of water.

To make binding; establish or strengthen

A short, usually stationary, muzzleloading cannon used from the 1700s to early 1900s to fire large round shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high trajectories.

To become cemented.

Any of various bonding materials used in masonry, surfacing, and plastering, especially a mixture of cement or lime, sand, and water that hardens in place and is used to bind together bricks or stones.

A powdered substance produced by firing (calcining) calcium carbonate (limestone) and clay that develops strong cohesive properties when mixed with water. The main ingredient of concrete.

To bombard with mortar shells.

(uncountable) The paste-like substance resulting from mixing such a powder with water, or the rock-like substance that forms when it dries.

To plaster or join with mortar.

(uncountable) Any material with strong adhesive and cohesive properties such as binding agents, glues, grout.

(uncountable) A mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding building blocks.

(figurative) A bond of union; that which unites firmly, as persons in friendship or in society.

(countable) A muzzle-loading, indirect fire weapon with a tube length of 10 to 20 calibers and designed to lob shells at very steep trajectories.

(anatomy) The layer of bone investing the root and neck of a tooth; cementum.

(countable) A hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle.

(transitive) To affix with cement.

(countable) In paper milling, a trough in which material is hammered.

(transitive) To overlay or coat with cement.

(transitive) To use mortar or plaster to join two things together.

To unite firmly or closely.

(transitive) To pound in a mortar.

(figuratively) To make permanent.

To fire a mortar (weapon).

Any substance used for making bodies adhere to each other, as mortar, glue, etc.

To attack (someone or something) using a mortar (weapon).

A kind of calcined limestone, or a calcined mixture of clay and lime, for making mortar which will harden under water.

A strong vessel, commonly in form of an inverted bell, in which substances are pounded or rubbed with a pestle.

Bond of union; that which unites firmly, as persons in friendship, or men in society.

A short piece of ordnance, used for throwing bombs, carcasses, shells, etc., at high angles of elevation, as 45°, and even higher; - so named from its resemblance in shape to the utensil above described.

The layer of bone investing the root and neck of a tooth; - called also cementum.

A building material made by mixing lime, cement, or plaster of Paris, with sand, water, and sometimes other materials; - used in masonry for joining stones, bricks, etc., also for plastering, and in other ways.

To unite or cause to adhere by means of a cement.

A chamber lamp or light.

To unite firmly or closely.

To plaster or make fast with mortar.

To overlay or coat with cement; as, to cement a cellar bottom.

A muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel that fires shells at high elevations for a short range

To become cemented or firmly united; to cohere.

Used as a bond in masonry or for covering a wall

Concrete pavement is sometimes referred to as cement;

A bowl-shaped vessel in which substances can be ground and mixed with a pestle

A building material that is a powder made of a mixture of calcined limestone and clay; used with water and sand or gravel to make concrete and mortar

Plaster with mortar;

Something that hardens to act as adhesive material

Any of various materials used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth

A specialized bony substance covering the root of a tooth

Make fast as if with cement;

Cover or coat with cement

Bind or join with or as if with cement