noun
- Plural of amianthus; a fine, silky variety of asbestos or a fibrous mineral resembling asbestos.
Usage: archaic; technical; mineralogy
Examples
- The museum's mineral collection included several specimens of amiantuses from the 19th century.
- Early geologists classified amiantuses as a distinct category of silky fibrous minerals.
- Amiantuses were once valued for their heat-resistant properties before the dangers of asbestos became widely known.