ceramic vs clay

ceramic

noun
  • An object made of this material 

  • A hard, brittle, inorganic, nonmetallic material, usually made from a material, such as clay, then firing it at a high tempature. 

adj
  • Made of material produced by the high-temperature firing of inorganic, nonmetallic rocks and minerals. 

clay

noun
  • An earth material with ductile qualities. 

  • A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics. 

  • A moth, Mythimna ferrago 

  • A tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate. 

  • A clay pigeon. 

  • A clay pipe for smoking tobacco. 

  • Land or territory of a country or other political region, especially when subject to territorial claims 

  • The material of the human body. 

  • A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale. 

verb
  • To purify using clay. 

  • To add clay to, to spread clay onto. 

How often have the words ceramic and clay occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )