1. The fact of becoming a mineral; the conversion of organic compounds into inorganic ones.
2. A process in vertebrates in which the mineral component of bone tissue increases in content and/or density.

Examples of mineralization include the deposition of salts in living organisms; such as, calcium phosphate in bone formation, and the complete oxidation of organic compounds, so that their carbon and hydrogen are oxidized to carbon dioxide and water, and other elements present to inorganic oxidation products, whose amounts may be measured comparatively easily.