Crystal habit

Crystal habit is the term used to identify the shape, size and appearance of a crystal's unique growth characteristics.

## Standard terms[edit]

* Acicular
* Needle-like, slender and/or tapered
* Anhedral
* Poorly formed and distorted
* Banded
* Narrow bands of differing colors
* Bladed
* Slender, flattened and blade-like
* Columnar
* Long, slender prisms and parallel growth
* Dendritic
* Tree-like multi-directional branching from central point
* Dodecahedral
* 12-sided dodecahedron
* Drusy (also called Encrusted)
* Aggregate of minute crystals coating a surface
* Enantiomorphic
* Mirror-image (left/right) habit and optical characteristics
* Equant (also called Stubby)
* Squashed, pinnacoids dominant over prisms
* Euhedral
* Well-formed and undistorted
* Foliated
* Easily separated into plates
* Geode
* Rock cavities with internal crystals & encrustation
* Granular Mass
* Anhedral crystals in lumpy mass with no crystal form
* Mamillary
* Intersecting large rounded contours
* Massive
* Shapeless with no distinct external crystal shape
* Octahedral
* 8-sided octahedron - two pyramids, base to base
* Pincoid
* Terminated by multiple pyramidal faces
* Prismatic
* Elongated and prism-Like, all faces are parallel to c-axis
* Pseudomorphous
* Occurring in the shape of another mineral
* Striated
* Surface growth lines parallel or perpendicular to c-axis
* Tabular (also called Lamellar)
* Flat, tablet-shaped, prominent pinnacoid