From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmicami‧ca /ˈmaɪkə/ noun [uncountable] HEGTa mineral that separates easily into small flat transparent pieces of rock, often used to make electrical instruments
Examples from the Corpus
mica• The commonest of these are asbestos and mica, which is why they have their peculiar and useful properties.• The less dark rocks are dominated by biotite mica and amphibole, and darker, more mafic rocks by pyroxene and olivine.• In mica, the bonds along the sheets of the structure maintain themselves while the weaker bonds between sheets allow bending.• Finely divided particles of reduced iron, mica and lead minerals can all act as low temperature fluxes.• They consist mostly of quartz and feldspars, with a little mica or amphibole.• Warriors in full armour paraded in the colossal hangar, its walls plated with slabs of heat-resistant mica.• It was a telltale sign that water was seeping through the canyon walls, softening the mica shale and conglomerate abutment.• How great the effect of the interfaces may be is shown by a famous experiment of Professor Orowan's with mica.Origin mica (1700-1800) Latin “grain, crumb” 