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DictionaryadobeEarthen building material
noun / adjective

adobe

uh-DOH-bee/əˈdəʊbi/

Sun-dried earth formed into building bricks.

The straw-flecked adobe bricks dry in direct sunlight beside a wooden mold.

A close view of straw-flecked earthen bricks drying outdoors in direct sunlight, with one dry brick prominently displaying its clay-and-straw composition and a wooden brick mold beside a damp newly shaped brick.
Etymology
adobeSpanishsun-dried, unburnt brick

Spanish adobe already named an unburnt brick dried in the sun, so the building-material meaning is inherited. Its deeper origin is disputed: the source reports both an Arabic “brick” ancestry and a connection with “daub, plaster.”

In context

PeriscopeFilm0:35
a natural earth brick, the sun-dried unburned brick of adobe. Adobe was the building material of ancient biblical time.
" BUILDINGS OF MUD ADOBE " 1955 USE OF ADOBE BRICKS IN CONSTRUCTION. CASA GRANDE ARIZONA. SM10955

More examples

  • Thick adobe walls surround the shaded courtyard.
  • The family lives in a restored adobe near the plaza.
  • Rain has damaged several exposed adobes along the old lane.

Forms

adobe · adobes

Similar words

mudbrick
The direct material term, without the same regional associations.
clay
Names an earth material rather than a finished building brick.