Rocks & Gems Words for Hangman 💎

Clues for every answer

A one-line clue for every answer, easy to hard. They're the same clues the game's 💡 Hint shows, so you can read them out when you run your own game.

Coal

Black rock made from ancient plants, burned as fuel.

Clay

Soft, sticky earth that potters shape and fire to make bricks and pottery.

Lava

Molten rock that pours out of a volcano.

Ore

Rock dug up because it holds a useful metal, like iron or copper.

Gravel

Loose small stones, used to make paths and roads.

Pearl

Shiny gem that grows inside a living shellfish, such as an oyster.

Opal

Gem that flashes rainbow colours, with huge deposits in Australia.

Flint

Hard rock that makes sparks when struck, used for Stone Age tools.

Slate

Grey rock that splits into thin, flat sheets, used for roof tiles.

Cave

Natural hollow space under the surface of the Earth.

Mine

Place dug into the ground to get coal, metals or gems out.

Iron

Metal that rusts, with the chemical symbol Fe.

Jewel

Precious stone that has been cut and polished.

Soil

Earth that plants grow in, a mix of minerals, water, air and rotted living things.

Salt

White crystals we add to food; the mineral form is called halite.

Cliff

Steep rock face, often where land meets the sea.

Boulder

Rock bigger than about 25 centimetres across, too heavy for a person to move.

Marble

Rock made from changed limestone, used for statues and polished floors.

Diamond

Hardest natural material, made of pure carbon.

Ruby

Red gemstone, a kind of the mineral corundum.

Quartz

Very common hard mineral made of silicon and oxygen.

Granite

Hard, grainy igneous rock used for worktops and buildings.

Basalt

Dark volcanic rock made from fast-cooling lava, found across the ocean floor.

Pumice

Volcanic rock so full of air bubbles that it can float on water.

Magma

Melted rock while it is still underground.

Geode

Round rock that is hollow inside and lined with crystals.

Topaz

Gemstone made of aluminium, silicon and fluorine, sometimes golden or blue.

Garnet

Gemstone whose name comes from an old word for dark red, the birthstone for January.

Amethyst

Purple kind of quartz.

Sandstone

Rock made of tiny grains of quartz cemented together.

Limestone

Rock made mostly of calcite, often from the shells of sea creatures.

Mineral

Natural solid with a fixed chemical makeup and an ordered crystal structure, like quartz or halite.

Cavern

Large cave.

Mica

Mineral that splits into very thin sheets.

Crust

Outermost solid layer of the Earth, the ground under our feet.

Fool's Gold

Nickname for pyrite, a brassy mineral that people mistook for something far more valuable.

Birthstone

Gem linked to the month you were born in.

Obsidian

Black volcanic glass that breaks into razor-sharp edges.

Gypsum

Soft mineral used to make plaster and plasterboard.

Mantle

Thick layer of hot rock between the Earth's crust and its core.

Igneous

Type of rock formed when magma or lava cools.

Sedimentary

Type of rock built up in layers from bits of other rocks, sand and shells.

Metamorphic

Type of rock changed by heat and pressure, like slate or marble.

Tourmaline

Gemstone that comes in many colours, often with two or more in one crystal.

Lapis Lazuli

Deep-blue stone ground up for the paint ultramarine.

Malachite

Bright green copper mineral with swirling bands.

Peridot

Olive-green gemstone, the gem form of the mineral olivine.

Tanzanite

Blue-violet gem found near Mount Kilimanjaro and nowhere else in the world.

Feldspar

The most common group of minerals in the Earth's crust.

Geologist

Scientist who studies rocks and the history of the Earth.

Mineralogy

Branch of geology that studies the chemistry and crystal structure of natural crystalline solids.

Weathering

Breaking down of rocks by water, air, sunlight and living things.

Petrified Wood

Ancient trees turned to stone, as minerals slowly replaced the plant tissue.

Fluorite

Colourful mineral that gave its name to fluorescence, the way some of it glows under ultraviolet light.

Hematite

Iron-rich mineral, often red or reddish-brown, that has been spotted on Mars.

Pyrite

Brassy yellow mineral nicknamed fool's gold.

Tectonic Plates

Giant slabs of the Earth's outer shell that slowly move and cause earthquakes.

Conglomerate

Rock made of rounded pebbles cemented together.

Kimberlite

Igneous rock best known as the main source of diamonds.

Cubic Zirconia

Man-made crystal used as a cheap diamond lookalike.