Marble vs. Granite — What's the Difference?

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

Granite () is a coarse-grained igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underground.

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

A common, coarse-grained, light-colored, hard igneous rock consisting chiefly of quartz, orthoclase or microcline, and mica, used in monuments and for building.

A piece of this rock.

Unyielding endurance; steadfastness

A sculpture made from this rock.

(rock) A group of igneous and plutonic rocks composed primarily of feldspar and quartz. Usually contains one or more dark minerals, which may be mica, pyroxene, or amphibole. Granite is quarried for building stone, road gravel, decorative stone, and tombstones. Common colors are gray, white, pink, and yellow-brown.

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

Toughness; the quality of having a thick skin or being rough.

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

A crystalline, granular rock, consisting of quartz, feldspar, and mica, and usually of a whitish, grayish, or flesh-red color. It differs from gneiss in not having the mica in planes, and therefore in being destitute of a schistose structure.

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

Plutonic igneous rock having visibly crystalline texture; generally composed of feldspar and mica and quartz

Marbles Slang Common sense; sanity

Something having the quality of granite (unyielding firmness);

Marbling.

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

Composed of metamorphic rock

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

A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.

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

Statues made from marble.

(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.

(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.

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

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;