A strong hard building material composed of sand and gravel and cement and water, stone-like building material (containing cement, gravel, water, etc.);

A composite material which consists essentially of a binding medium, within which are embedded particles or fragments of a relative inert filler in port-land cement concrete, the binder is a mixture of port-land cement and water; the filler may be any of a wide variety of natural or artificial, fine and coarse aggregates; and in some instances, an admixture.

Concrete is a composite construction material composed primarily of aggregate, cement and water. There are many formulations that have varied properties. The aggregate is generally a coarse gravel or crushed rocks such as limestone, or granite, along with a fine aggregate such as sand. The cement, commonly Portland cement, and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, serve as a binder for the aggregate. Various chemical admixtures are also added to achieve varied properties. Water is then mixed with this dry composite which enables it to be shaped (typically poured) and then solidified and hardened into rock-hard strength through a chemical process known as hydration. The water reacts with the cement which bonds the other components together, eventually creating a robust stone-like material. Concrete has relatively high compressive strength, but much lower tensile strength. For this reason is usually reinforced with materials that are strong in tension (often steel). Concrete can be damaged by many processes, such as the freezing of trapped water.

Noun

1. a strong hard building material composed of sand and gravel and cement and water

(hypernym) building material

(hyponym) cement

(substance-meronym) cement.