Word.ws English Dictionary

all that glitters is not gold

all that glitters is not gold proverb: things that appear valuable or worthwhile might not actually be so; things that appear nice might not be as good as they appear.

Proverb

all that glitters is not gold

  1. Things that appear valuable or worthwhile might not actually be so; things that appear nice might not be as good as they appear.
    • All that gliſters is not gold,
      Often haue you heard that told, […]c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act...

all that glitters is not gold meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

all that glitters is not gold in Hindi

things that appear valuable or worthwhile might not actually be so
हर चमकती चीज़ सोना नहीं होती har camaktī cīz sonā nahī̃ hotī

all that glitters is not gold in Tamil

things that appear valuable or worthwhile might not actually be so
மின்னுவதெல்லாம் பொன்னல்ல miṉṉuvatellām poṉṉalla

all that glitters is not gold in Urdu

things that appear valuable or worthwhile might not actually be so
ہر چمکتی چیز سونا نہیں ہوتی har camaktī cīz sonā nahī̃ hotī

all that glitters is not gold in Bengali

things that appear valuable or worthwhile might not actually be so
সব চকচক করলেই যে সোনা হয় না śobo cokocok korlei je śōna hoẏ na
More languagesFewer languages
all that glitters is not gold in Malayalam
മിന്നുന്നതെല്ലാം പൊന്നല്ല minnunnatellāṁ ponnalla
all that glitters is not gold in Arabic
لَيْسَ كُلُّ مَا يَلْمَعُ ذَهَبًا laysa kullu mā yalmaʕu ḏahaban
all that glitters is not gold in Malay
indah khabar daripada rupa, yang bercahaya bukan semuanya intan

Synonyms of all that glitters is not gold

Forms of all that glitters is not gold

alternative formall that glisters is not gold
alternative formall that glitters

Origin of all that glitters is not gold

Calque of Latin nōn omne quod nitet aurum est (“not all that shines is gold”). Popularized by William Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice, see quotations.

Questions about all that glitters is not gold

What does all that glitters is not gold mean?
All that glitters is not gold means things that appear valuable or worthwhile might not actually be so; things that appear nice might not be as good as they appear.
What is all that glitters is not gold in Hindi?
All that glitters is not gold in Hindi is हर चमकती चीज़ सोना नहीं होती (har camaktī cīz sonā nahī̃ hotī). See All that glitters is not gold meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is all that glitters is not gold?
All that glitters is not gold is a proverb.

Words near all that glitters is not gold in the dictionary

  1. all that
  2. all that and a bag of chips
  3. all that and a bag of potato chips
  4. all that glisters is not gold
  5. all that glitters
  6. all that glitters is not gold
  7. all that jazz
  8. all that one's life is worth
  9. all that one's life's worth
  10. all that said
  11. all the best

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: all that glitters is not gold (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-all that glitters is not gold.oga.

Cite this entry: “all that glitters is not gold.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/all_that_glitters_is_not_gold. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.