The process of converting glass from a glassy, amorphous state into a crystalline state, often making it opaque or brittle.
From de- + vitrification (making into glass). The opposite process—vitrification makes things glassy, devitrification makes glass crystalline.
Archaeologists studying ancient glass use devitrification patterns to date artifacts—the more crystalline the glass has become, the older it is, because the process happens slowly over centuries.
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