gem

/d͡ʒɛm/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

pin pen merger/d͡ʒɪm/

gem noun: a precious stone, usually of substantial monetary value or prized for its beauty or shine.

Image: Arpingstone, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

gem (countable and uncountable, plural gems)

A precious stone, usually of substantial monetary value or prized for its beauty or shine.
- And on her head she wore a tyre of gold,
  Adornd with gemmes and owches wondrous fayre,
  Whose passing price vneath was to be told;1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 144
- Of six preceding ancestors, that gem,
  Conferr’d by testament to the sequent issue,
  Hath it been owed and worn. This is his wife;
  That ring’s a thousand proofs.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
Synonyms:

gemstone
(figuratively) Any precious or highly valued thing or person.
- She's an absolute gem.
- Standout “Hidden Knives” is the kind of new wave-leaning punk gem John Hughes would’ve loved, while “So Beneath You” is a teeth-baring, roiling tune.2017 January 20, Annie Zaleski, “AFI sounds refreshed and rejuvenated on its 10th album, AFI (The Blood Album)”, in The Onion AV Club
1. (broadly, figuratively) Anything of small size, or expressed within brief limits, which is regarded as a gem on account of its beauty or value, such as a small picture, a verse of poetry, or an epigram.
  - a gem of wit
2. (Internet, broadly, figuratively) Internet content of good quality.
(obsolete) A gemma or leaf bud.
- Then from the Joynts of thy prolifick Stemm
  A swelling Knot is raised (call’d a Gemm)c. 1668, John Denham (translator), Of Old Age by Cato the Elder, Part 3, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, London: H. Herringman, 4th edition, 1773, p. 35
- Among the crooked Lanes, on every Hedge, / The Glow-Worm lights his Gem […].a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC
A geometrid moth of the species Orthonama obstipata.
A package containing programs or libraries for the Ruby programming language.
(obsolete, uncommon, uncountable) A size of type between brilliant (4-point) and diamond (4½-point), running 222 lines to the foot.
A strong, dominating pitching performance.
- He didn’t walk a batter in his 100-pitch gem2025, Associated Press, Crochet gets 1st career shutout and complete game as Red Sox beat Rays for 9th straight win by Associated Press

Verb

gem (third-person singular simple present gems, present participle gemming, simple past and past participle gemmed)

(transitive) To adorn with, or as if with, gems.
- [T]he fair star / That gems the glittering coronet of morn, / Sheds not a light so mild, so powerful, / As that which, bursting from the Fairy's form, / Spread a purpureal halo round the scene, / Yet with an undulating motion, / Swayed to her outline gracefully.1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto I”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 6
- A few bright and beautiful stars gemmed the wide concave of heaven[…].1827, Various, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10
Synonyms:

begem

Noun (2) capitalized: Gem

Gem (plural Gems)

A native or resident of the American state of Idaho.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Gem

Gem

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Gem

Gem

A diminutive of the female given name Gemma.

Noun (3) capitalized: GEM

GEM (plural GEMs)

(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of ground-effect machine.
(abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Graphite-Epoxy Motor.

gem meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Telugu

gem in Hindi

precious stone: मणि maṇi, रत्न ratna, पत्थर patthar

gem in Urdu

precious stone: جوہر jauhar, گَوہر gauhar

gem in Telugu

రత్నం, రత్నము

More languagesFewer languages

gem in Malayalam: രത്നം
gem in Kannada: ರತ್ನ, ರತ್ನೆ, ರತ್ನದ
gem in Sanskrit: मणि maṇi, रत्न ratna
gem in Pashto: غمی ghamai
gem in Arabic: جَوْهَر jawhar, جَوْهَرَة jawhara
gem in Malay: permata, jauhar
gem in Indonesian: permata
gem in Persian: گوهر gowhar
gem in Thai: พลอย plɔɔi, จินดา jin-daa, รัตน์ rát
gem in Vietnamese: đá quý
gem in Myanmar: ရတနာ ra.ta.na

Examples of gem in a sentence

Above was the firmament, gemmed with worlds, and sublime in immensity.1872, J. Fenimore Cooper, The Bravo:
The rain Shook from fruit bushes in new showers again As I brushed past, and gemmed the window pane.1920, John Freeman, Poems New and Old:
And those salt tears your lashes gemmed / Were but the breath of flame distilled; / Flame white and pure, and diademmed / With suffering,—pain with joy fulfilled.1922 February, Miriam Campbell, “A Dream of Brittany”, in The Educational Times: A Review of Ideas and Methods, volume IV (new...

All 40 example sentences with gem

Synonyms of gem

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of gem

Forms of gem

Noun
plural	gems
plural	Gems
plural	GEMs
Verb
third-person singular present	gems
present participle	gemming
past participle	gemmed
past	gemmed

Plural of gem: gems

Origin of gem

Inherited from Middle English gemme, gimme, yimme, ȝimme, from Old English ġimm, from Proto-West Germanic *gimmu (“gem”) and Old French gemme (“gem”), both from Latin gemma (“a swelling bud; jewel, gem”). Doublet of gemma and Gemma.

From Gem State.

Words formed from gem

Phrases with gem

Words that rhyme with gem

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gem

What does gem mean?: Gem means a precious stone, usually of substantial monetary value or prized for its beauty or shine.
What is gem in Hindi?: Gem in Hindi is मणि (maṇi), रत्न (ratna), पत्थर (patthar). See Gem meaning in Hindi.
How do you use gem in a sentence?: Above was the firmament, gemmed with worlds, and sublime in immensity.
What part of speech is gem?: Gem can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce gem?: Gem is pronounced /d͡ʒɛm/.
What is the plural of gem?: The plural of gem is gems.

Words near gem in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: gem (page history and authors); Gem (page history and authors); GEM (page history and authors); gem (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gem (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gem (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-gem.ogg.

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