cornelian
cornelian noun: any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Deudorix. Also the alternative form of carnelian.
Noun (1)
cornelian (countable and uncountable, plural cornelians)
Noun (2)
cornelian (plural cornelians)
- The cornelian cherry (fruit).
Adjective capitalized: Cornelian
Cornelian (comparative more Cornelian, superlative most Cornelian)
- Pertaining to Pierre Corneille, or characteristic of his tragedies
- Nick tried for a while to talk to Emile about scrap metal, which tested his Cornelian French to the limits […]2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 8, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN
Also used as
cornelian is also the alternative form of carnelian.
Forms of cornelian
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | cornelians |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more Cornelian |
| superlative | most Cornelian |
Origin of cornelian
From Old French corneline (French cornaline), from Medieval Latin cornus or cornum after the berry Cornus mas (cornelian cherry).
From French cornélien.
Words formed from cornelian
Phrases with cornelian
Questions about cornelian
- What does cornelian mean?
- Cornelian means any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Deudorix.
- What part of speech is cornelian?
- Cornelian can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of cornelian?
- The plural of cornelian is cornelians.
Words near cornelian in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cornelian (page history and authors); Cornelian (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Neøn-cornelian.wav.
Cite this entry: “cornelian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cornelian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.