\Ze"o*lite\, n. [Gr. ? to boil + -lite: cf. F.
z['e]olithe.] (Min.)
A term now used to designate any one of a family of minerals,
hydrous silicates of alumina, with lime, soda, potash, or
rarely baryta. Here are included natrolite, stilbite,
analcime, chabazite, thomsonite, heulandite, and others.
These species occur of secondary origin in the cavities of
amygdaloid, basalt, and lava, also, less frequently, in
granite and gneiss. So called because many of these species
intumesce before the blowpipe.
{Needle zeolite}, needlestone; natrolite.