How to Use pyrite in a Sentence

pyrite

noun
  • The free-agent market is often a place of pyrite rather than gold.
    — David Murphy, Philly.com, 13 Mar. 2018
  • This can then react with iron to form pyrite, which is iron sulfide.
    — Nina Turner, Newsweek, 29 Oct. 2024
  • Some skulls were crafted into masks with eyeballs of shell and pyrite.
    — Bridget Alex, Discover Magazine, 31 Mar. 2018
  • But the latest market gold rush also has produced its share of pyrite.
    — Paul Vigna, WSJ, 4 Sep. 2017
  • Geology has found tiny amounts of gold can be trapped inside pyrite.
    — David Bressan, Forbes, 27 June 2021
  • Flecks of mica and pyrite and who knows what, but only fools and greenhorns mistake it for gold.
    — John Archibald, Southern Living, 11 June 2026
  • Flecks of mica and pyrite and who knows what, but only fools and greenhorns mistake it for gold.
    — John Archibald, Southern Living, 25 May 2025
  • Flashy hitting stats are often iron pyrite in the Cactus League.
    — Andrew Baggarly, The Mercury News, 1 Mar. 2017
  • The fossilization process had turned the animal into pyrite—fool’s gold.
    — Leigh Phillips, The Atlantic, 9 July 2024
  • Scattered among them are small obsidian tools, stone figurines and mirrors made of pyrite.
    — Will Hunt, Discover Magazine, 19 Dec. 2014
  • There’s a knack to striking sparks from flint and pyrite, as any sufficiently old-school backpacker can tell you.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 26 July 2018
  • But there wasn’t just one moment when a caveman picked up a hunk of pyrite, struck it against a rock, and marveled at the resulting sparks.
    — Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 27 Feb. 2024
  • The goal was to find calcite or pyrite crystals that had formed in those interstices as they were washed with mineral-rich fluids.
    — Katherine Kornei, Space.com, 1 Nov. 2025
  • Included are amethyst, obsidian, pyrite, fire opal, amber, jade and quartz.
    — R. Daniel Foster, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2025
  • In this process, the organic material of an organism’s body is replaced by pyrite over time.
    — Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Oct. 2024
  • Soft tissue such as muscle do not typically fossilize, but these were preserved as the mineral pyrite.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 22 Feb. 2019
  • Materials like the copper ore mineral chalcocite and fool's gold, pyrite, are sulfidic anions.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 9 Apr. 2018
  • Iron sulfide, better known as pyrite or fool's gold, could have a new lease on the high life after researchers turned it into a magnet using an electrical treatment.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 31 July 2020
  • The pyrite half of the Paleolithic firestarting kit often doesn't last as long as flint, because pyrite tends to oxidize and corrode away over time.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 26 July 2018
  • The tunnel’s walls were decorated with pyrite, or fool’s gold, which reflected firelight to create the illusion of a sky dotted with stars.
    — Livia Gershon, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Aug. 2021
  • As the days went on, my guides and I walked through more red rhododendron blossoms blanketing the ground, green pine forests, and past mountain stretches that glittered with gold pyrite.
    — Hillary Richard, Robb Report, 20 Nov. 2025
  • The researchers also found that the snail’s scales have both pyrite and greigite crystals embedded within their organic material.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 30 Jan. 2026
  • Turning a mine waste problem into a solution Acid mine drainage forms when sulfide minerals, such as pyrite, are exposed to air during mining.
    — Alan Collins, The Conversation, 21 Jan. 2026
  • And Mary and Jesus are given natural (if irregular) halos by glimmering gold pyrite specks in the lapis.
    — Judith H. Dobrzynski, WSJ, 12 Mar. 2022
  • While Fool's Gold (minerals like iron pyrite and mica flakes) will sparkle in the pan, gold is the only one that stays truly golden when the pan is shaded by a miner's hand.
    — Peter Reese, Popular Mechanics, 27 Aug. 2020
  • Fire also crawled into the mine along hundreds of feet of polyethylene pipe, a fuse that could have ignited the combustible pyrite — fool’s gold — causing an explosion deep inside the cavern.
    — NBC News, 23 Dec. 2020
  • The mineral world's champion of diverse origins is the humble pyrite (FeS2), known by many as Fool's Gold.
    — David Bressan, Forbes, 2 July 2022
  • The firm had advanced a large loan to the Fulgencio Batista government in Cuba for mining pyrite, a mineral used in jewelry.
    — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 17 Jan. 2020
  • In this area, the team found a small patch of reddened sediment, about the size of a modest campfire, surrounded by two pyrites, 19 flints, and four broken hand axes, showing clear signs of heating.
    — Jay Kakade december 30, New Atlas, 30 Dec. 2025
  • But for many young players like Jokic, who just turned 22, nothing gold can stay without addressing the inevitable exposure of pyrite that comes as teams adjust their defense to slow him.
    — Nick Kosmider, The Denver Post, 27 Feb. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pyrite.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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