'high-alumina-content' is a modern English compound formed from 'high' (Old English 'heah'), 'alumina' (Modern/Neo-Latin scientific term from Latin 'alumen'), and 'content' (from Latin 'contentus' / 'continere').

'alumina' was coined in scientific Neo-Latin from Latin 'alumen' (originally meaning 'bitter salt' or 'alum'); 'content' came into English via Old French and Middle English from Latin 'continere' meaning 'to hold together/contain'; the compound 'high-alumina-content' is a descriptive technical formation in modern English (19th–20th century chemistry and materials usage).

Originally 'alumen' referred to the substance 'alum' (a sulfate salt). Over time the Neo-Latin/chemical term 'alumina' came to mean the oxide of aluminum (Al2O3). 'Content' originally related to holding or containing; it evolved into the sense 'amount contained' used in compounds like 'alumina content'. Combined, the compound now specifically denotes a high amount of alumina in a material.