noun
: a compound SiC of silicon and carbon that is obtained as brittle crystals next to diamond and boron carbide in hardness and often dark bluish black and iridescent, that is made by heating sand and coke together in an electric resistance furnace, and that is used chiefly in crushed form as an abrasive especially for grinding hard materials of low tensile strength (as cast iron or marble) and materials needing sharp cutting (as fiber, rubber, or aluminum), as a refractory, and in electric resistors