The rocks and minerals from which these materials are derived, typically limestone or chalk, are composed primarily of calcium carbonate. They may be cut, crushed, or lime and mint water benefits and chemically altered.

When the term is encountered in an agricultural context, it usually refers to agricultural lime, which today is usually crushed limestone, not a product of a lime kiln. Limestone is extracted from quarries or mines. In wet slaking, a slight excess of water is added to hydrate the quicklime to a form referred to as lime putty. Because lime has an adhesive property with bricks and stones, it is often used as binding material in masonry works.

It is also used in whitewashing as wall coat to adhere the whitewash onto the wall. The carbon dioxide that takes part in this reaction is principally available in the air or dissolved in rainwater so pure lime mortar will not recarbonate under water or inside a thick masonry wall. The lime cycle for dolomitic and magnesium lime is not well understood but more complex because the magnesium compounds also slake to periclase which slake more slowly than calcium oxide and when hydrated produce several other compounds. Pure lime is also known as rich, common, air, slaked, slack, pickling, hydrated, and high calcium lime. Pure lime is pure white and can be used for whitewash, plaster, and mortar. Semi-hydraulic lime, also called partially hydraulic and grey lime, sets initially with water and then continues to set with air. Hydraulic lime is also called water lime.