Definition of "nephrite" [neph•rite]

• A white to dark green variety of jade, chiefly a metasilicate of iron, calcium, and magnesium. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "For instance, there was been found scattered over Europe axes made of varieties of stone known as nephrite and jade."
• "It is a kind of nephrite or jade, a mineral which usually occurs in talcose or magnesian rocks."
• "Indeed, the most amusing piece in the collection is Prince Charles's sealing-wax stamp, a Kermit-like green frog carved from Siberian nephrite surmounting, with his left hind leg fully extended, a gold column enameled with pink guilloché the enamel is translucent so you can just make out the geometric pattern incised into the metal beneath it—and in this case looks like moiré silk."