silica n 1: a white or colorless vitreous insoluble solid (SiO2); various forms occur widely in the earth's crust as quartz or cristobalite or tridymite or lechatelierite [syn: {silica}, {silicon oxide}, {silicon dioxide}]
Silica \Sil"i*ca\, n. [NL., from L. silex, silics, a flint.] (Chem.) Silicon dioxide, SiO?. It constitutes ordinary quartz (also opal and tridymite), and is artifically prepared as a very fine, white, tasteless, inodorous powder. [1913 Webster]