Thin veneer stone is natural stone cut into thin slabs, usually about an inch or two thick, light enough to attach directly to a wall with mortar or clips instead of bearing structural load.
Thin veneer gives the look and texture of real stone at a fraction of the weight and cost of full-bed stone, since it's cut down to a facing rather than a structural mass. It gets attached over lath and a scratch coat, or with mechanical clip systems, directly to a framed wall, and it's a common choice for fireplace surrounds, accent walls, and exterior facades where the wall itself is already doing the structural work and the stone only needs to hang on the surface. Because it's cut natural stone rather than cast concrete, the color and texture come from the mineral itself and won't wear off or fade the way a surface coating eventually can.
Because thin veneer isn't structural, everything depends on what's behind it: correct flashing, a drainage plane, and a way for any moisture that gets behind the stone to escape. In a climate with hard freeze-thaw winters, water trapped behind veneer can crack the stone face or damage the wall sheathing underneath it, so the installation detailing matters as much as the stone selection. It's worth asking any mason what's going behind the stone, not just what stone they're using, since that hidden layer is what determines whether the veneer lasts or fails early, no matter how good the stone on the front looks.
More masonry vocabulary from the glossary.
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