A hard, usually transparent material made by heating sand and other substances, used for windows, bottles, and many other objects.
From Old English *glæs* meaning “glass, glaze,” related to a Germanic root for shiny or transparent substances. Early glass was rare and precious before becoming common. The word also came to mean a drinking vessel or mirror.
Glass is actually a frozen liquid-like solid: its atoms are disordered like a liquid but locked in place. Humans learned to control sand and fire so well that we now live behind invisible walls that bend light, from windows to smartphone screens.
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