emerald

/ˈɛm.(ə.)ɹəld/

emerald noun: any of various green gemstones, especially a green transparent form of beryl, highly valued as a precious stone.

Image: Géry PARENT, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

emerald (countable and uncountable, plural emeralds)

Any of various green gemstones, especially a green transparent form of beryl, highly valued as a precious stone.
- Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are diamond, ruby and sapphire, emerald and other gem forms of the mineral beryl, chrysoberyl, tanzanite, tsavorite, topaz and jade.2012 March, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2012, page 128
Synonyms:

smaragd
Emerald green, a colour.
Vert, when blazoning by precious stones.
- 16. As the first. Crest, on a Mount Emerald, a Falcon rising Topaz.1726, John Guillim, The Banner Display'd, page 504
- Crest. On a Wreath, a demi Dragon, Emerald, armed and langued, Roby [...] Supporters. Two Dragons reguardant, Emerald, [...]1754, John Lodge, The Peerage of Ireland; Or, a Genealogical History of the ..., page 212
Any hummingbird in the genera Chlorostilbon and Elvira; and some in the genus Amazilia
Any of various species of dragonfly of the family Corduliidae.
(UK, dated) A size of type between nonpareil and minion, standardized as 6½-point.

Synonyms:

minionette

Adjective

emerald (comparative more emerald, superlative most emerald)

Of a rich green colour.
- The insect-queen of eastern spring, / O'er emerald meadows of Kashmeer / Invites the young pursuer near, / And leads him on from flower to flower / A weary chase and wasted hour.1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour

Verb

emerald (third-person singular simple present emeralds, present participle emeralding, simple past and past participle emeralded)

(poetic, transitive) To ornament with, or as if with, emeralds; to make green.

Proper noun capitalized: Emerald

Emerald

A town in Queensland, Australia.
A town in the Shire of Cardinia and the Shire of Yarra Ranges, central Victoria, Australia
A rural municipality in eastern Saskatchewan, Canada; in full, the Rural Municipality of Emerald No. 277.
(rare) A female given name from English.
- The child, a girl, was albino like April, and had exactly April's deep red eyes. Sol and Libra named her Emerald, a green name and a ground-term rather than a sky-term, as if in open expression of the slow spell worked on them all by Viridis.1954 Theodore Sturgeon, The Golden Helix, in Leo Marguelis:Three Times Infinity, Fawcett Publications 1958, page 109
- Mrs. Emerald Walsh was helping out at the presbytery.1978, Mary Manning, The last chronicles of Ballyfungus, page 48

emerald meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

emerald in Hindi

gemstone: पन्ना pannā, हरिन्मणि harinmaṇi

emerald in Urdu

gemstone: زمرد zumurrud, پنا pannā, مرکت marakat
of a rich green colour: زمردیں zumurrudĩ, زمردی zumurrudī

emerald in Bengali

gemstone: পান্না panna, জমরুদ jomrud

More languagesFewer languages

emerald in Telugu: మరకతము marakatamu, పచ్చ pacca
emerald in Malayalam: മരതകം maratakaṁ
emerald in Kannada: ಪಚ್ಚೆ pacce
emerald in Punjabi: ਪੰਨਾ pannā
emerald in Gujarati: જમરૂદ jamrūd
emerald in Sanskrit: मरकत marakata, हरिन्मणि harinmaṇi
emerald in Sinhala: මරකත, වර්ණය
emerald in Pashto: زمرد zamurrúd
emerald in Tagalog: esmeralda
emerald in Arabic: زُمُرُّد zumurrud, أَخْضَر زُمُرُّدِيّ akhḍar zumurrudiyy, خَضْرَاء زُمُرُّدِيَّة khaḍrāʾ zumurrudiyyah
emerald in Malay: zamrud, jumantan
emerald in Indonesian: zamrud, jumantan
emerald in Persian: زمرد zomorrod, زمردی zomorrodi
emerald in Thai: มรกต mɔɔ-rá-gòt
emerald in Vietnamese: ngọc lục bảo, bích ngọc
emerald in Myanmar: မြ mra.

Examples of emerald in a sentence

The ash trees are dying off due to emerald ash borer.
He's a typical gemcutter, mostly diamonds but some emeralds and the occasional sapphire or ruby.
Potts—a petite brunette in torn boyfriend jeans, vintage peep-toe wedges, and a low-cut emerald sweater—smile-nodded at Claire.

All 32 example sentences with emerald

Synonyms of emerald

Forms of emerald

Noun
plural	emeralds
Adjective
comparative	more emerald
superlative	most emerald
Verb
third-person singular present	emeralds
present participle	emeralding
past participle	emeralded
past	emeralded

Plural of emerald: emeralds

Origin of emerald

From Middle English emeraude, borrowed from Old French esmeraude, from Vulgar Latin *smaralda, *smaraldus, *smaraudus, variant of Latin smaragdus, from Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smáragdos), μάραγδος (máragdos), from a Semitic language. Compare Hebrew בָּרֶקֶת (bāréqeṯ, “emerald, flashing gem”), Akkadian 𒁀𒊏𒄣 (baraqu, literally “scintillation”), Arabic بَرْق (barq, literally “flashing”), Egyptian bwyrqꜣ (literally “to sparkle”):D58-Z7-Z4:D21-N29-Z1-G1-D6 and loanwords with Semitic etymon such as Sanskrit मरकत (marakata).

From emerald. The Queensland town takes its name from the emerald and other precious stone deposits in the area and from the pastoral run Emerald Downs, a name chosen circa 1860 by pastoralist Peter Fitzallan MacDonald. It is unclear if emeralds were found in or around Emerald. The given name is a modern coinage from the name of the gemstone, representing a vernacular form of Esmeralda.

Words formed from emerald

Phrases with emerald

3 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about emerald

What does emerald mean?: Emerald means any of various green gemstones, especially a green transparent form of beryl, highly valued as a precious stone.
What is emerald in Hindi?: Emerald in Hindi is पन्ना (pannā), हरिन्मणि (harinmaṇi). See Emerald meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is emerald?: Emerald can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce emerald?: Emerald is pronounced /ˈɛm.(ə.)ɹəld/.
What is the plural of emerald?: The plural of emerald is emeralds.

Words near emerald in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: emerald (page history and authors); Emerald (page history and authors); જમરૂદ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); emerald (Sinhala Wiktionary) (page history and authors); زمرد (Pashto) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-emerald.wav.

Cite this entry: “emerald.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/emerald. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.