Thus the word was used to refer to a product obtained through the action of fire upon earthy materials.
Ceramics make up one of three large classes of solid materials.
The other material classes include metals and polymers. The combination of two or more of these materials together to produce a new material whose properties would not be attainable by conventional means is called a composite. Ceramics can be defined as inorganic, non-metallic materials that are typically produced using clays and other minerals from the earth or chemically processed powders. Glass is often considered a subset of ceramics. Glass is somewhat different than ceramics in that it is amorphous, or has no long range crystalline order.