1. A common, coarse-grained, light-colored, hard igneous rock consisting chiefly of quartz, orthoclase or microcline, and mica; used in monuments and for building.
2. Unyielding endurance; steadfastness: a will of granite.
3. Etymology: from French granit(e), from Italian granito, "granite"; originally, "grained"; past participle of granire, "granulate", from grano, "grain", from Latin granum, "grain".

Quartz usually makes up ten to fifty percent of the light-colored minerals in granite, with the remaining minerals consisting of the feldspars and muscovite.

The darker minerals in granite are usually biotite and hornblende. Granite is one of the most common rocks in the crust of continents, and is formed by the slow, underground cooling of magma.