Definition of "silicate" []

• Any of numerous compounds containing silicon, oxygen, and one or more metals; a salt of silicic acid. (noun)
• Any of a large group of minerals, forming over 90 percent of the earth's crust, that consist of SiO2 or SiO4 groupings combined with one or more metals and sometimes hydrogen. (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.

• "“Clay” as a mineral refers to a “cousin” of micas; that is, a silicate mineral containing structural sheets of silica tetrahedra tetrahedral arrangements of one Si and 4 Oxygen atoms, with the Oxygen atoms at the 4 corners."
• "That kind of planet would have to develop differently from Earth, Mars and Venus, so-called silicate planets made up mostly of silicon-oxygen compounds."
• "The principal ore mineral is uranophane, a hydrated calcium-uranium silicate, which is believed to be an oxidation product of pitchblende."