ruby
/ˈɹuː.bi/
ruby noun: a clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone. Also the alternative letter-case form of Ruby.
Noun (1)
ruby (countable and uncountable, plural rubies)
- A clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone.
- They respond instantly to the faintest rustling in the covert of a sheaf of Ulysses S. Grants, or the homely, rustic tinkle of a wheelbarrow full of rubies being jounced along over a nightclub floor.1957, The Monthly Record, volume 61, page 22
- 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
- A deep red colour.
- When now I thinke you can behold such sights, / And keepe the naturall Rubie of your Cheekes, / When mine is blanch'd with feare.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- The tincture red or gules.
- Elgin. Topaz a Saltier and Chief Ruby, on a Canton Pearl a Lyon Rampant Saphyr, which last is their paternal Coat; and the Field Topaz, and Saltier, and Chief Ruby, was the Arms of King Robert the Bruce, they altering the Field from Pearl (as he bore it) to Topaz.1720, Francis Nichols, Rudiments of Honour, page 296
- The Field is Ruby, on a Bend Topaz, three Martlets Diamond. [...] Checkie Topaz and Saphire, a Fesse within a Bordure Ruby, by the Name of Clifford.1726, John Guillim, The Banner Display'd; Or, an Abridgment of Guillim, page 504
- A ruby hummer, a South American hummingbird, Clytolaema rubricauda.
- A red bird-of-paradise, Paradisaea rubra.
- The size of type between pearl and nonpareil, standardized as 5½-point.
- Synonyms:
- agate
- A pronunciation guide written above or beside Chinese characters.
- A red spinel.
Adjective
ruby (comparative more ruby, superlative most ruby)
Verb
ruby (third-person singular simple present rubies, present participle rubying, simple past and past participle rubied)
Proper noun capitalized: Ruby
Ruby
- A female given name.
- Ruby, my dear / Hold back that tear / I know he's gone / Your love has flown1990, “Dear Ruby^([sic – meaning Ruby, My Dear])”, in Sally Swisher (lyrics), Thelonious Monk (music), Carmen Sings Monk, performed by Carmen McRae
- And those are her two daughters, Opal and Ruby. Her husband, Joshua, named them. He said they were to be the jewels of his old age. She would never have thought of names like that. There wasn't an ounce of sentiment in her body.1992, Karen Kijewski, Kat's Cradle, page 76
- A surname.
- A male given name.
- A dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language developed in the 1990s.
- The final thrust of Bob's argument is that if you strip away all disk I/O (and he cites the move to SSD persistent storage), we'll shift away from interpreted languages such as Ruby and PHP and back to Java.2011 October 17, Matthew Baxter-Reynolds, “Java's second coming? Over my cold, dead RAM-cached database”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 27 Jun 2022
- Ruby began life in Japan as the creation of Yukihiro Matsumoto, known more commonly as Matz. Unlike that of most language developers, Matz's motivation for Ruby was fun and a principle of “least surprise,” in order to improve overall developer productivity.2017, Peter Cooper, Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional, Apress, →ISBN, page 100
- A city in Alaska.
- A ghost town in Arizona.
- A town in South Carolina.
- A town in Wisconsin.
- A settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
- A locality in South Gippsland Shire, south eastern Victoria, Australia.
Noun (2) capitalized: Ruby
Ruby
- A curry; ellipsis of Ruby Murray.
- We're going down the Indian for a Ruby; wanna join us?
- No matter if you're Asian, Arab or Eskimo, everyone loves a ruby.2002, John Sullivan, “Strangers on the Shore”, in Only Fools and Horses
Also used as
ruby is also the alternative letter-case form of Ruby.
ruby meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
ruby in Hindi
- type of gem
- मानिक mānik, माणिक्य māṇikya, याक़ूत yāqūt, याकूत yākūt, लाल lāl, चूनी cūnī
ruby in Tamil
- ரூபி
ruby in Marathi
- रूबी, रुबी
ruby in Urdu
- type of gem
- یاقوت yāqūt
More languagesFewer languages
- ruby in Bengali
- মাণিক্য ইয়াকুত manikko, এয়াকুত eẏakut
- ruby in Telugu
- కెంపు kempu
- ruby in Malayalam
- മാണിക്യം māṇikyaṁ
- ruby in Kannada
- ರೂಬಿ, ರುಬಿ
- ruby in Punjabi
- ਯਾਕੂਤ yākūt
- ruby in Gujarati
- માણેક māṇek
- ruby in Odia
- ରୁବି, ରୁବୀ
- ruby in Sanskrit
- माणिक्य māṇikya
- ruby in Sinhala
- රතුකැට ratukæṭa
- ruby in Assamese
- মাণিক manik, ডালিমা dalima, চুনী suni
- ruby in Nepali
- रूबी, रुबी, रूबीलाई
- ruby in Tagalog
- rubi
- ruby in Arabic
- يَاقُوت yāqūt
- ruby in Malay
- delima, bakam
- ruby in Indonesian
- bakam, batu delima, mirah
- ruby in Persian
- یاقوت yâqut, یاکند yâkand
- ruby in Thai
- ทับทิม táp-tim
- ruby in Vietnamese
- hồng ngọc, chữ phiên âm, ký tự phiên âm, chữ ruby
- ruby in Myanmar
- ကျောက်နီ kyaukni
- Sindhi
- ياقوت yaqutu, ياقوتي رنگ yaquti rangu, روبي اکر rubi akhar, ڳاڙهو ياقوتي gaṛho yaquti
Examples of ruby in a sentence
- He's a typical gemcutter, mostly diamonds but some emeralds and the occasional sapphire or ruby.
- A pair of ruby eyes caught the light in the shadows across the street.
- It was oval, and shockingly red with ruby colored carpeting meeting walls of glistening claret.
Synonyms of ruby
Forms of ruby
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | rubies |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more ruby |
| superlative | most ruby |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | rubies |
| present participle | rubying |
| past participle | rubied |
| past | rubied |
Origin of ruby
From Middle English ruby, rube, from Old French rubi, from Medieval Latin rubīnus. Doublet of rubi and rubine. Etymology 1 sense 7 (“pronunciation guide”) is from the British 5½-point type size (etymology 1 sense 6), used for annotations in printed documents.
The female name derives from ruby in the 19th century. The programming language was named after the gemstone.
Words formed from ruby
- antique ruby
- balas-ruby
- Colorado ruby
- Mont Blanc ruby
- nonruby
- ovorubin
- rock ruby
- rose-a-ruby
- rubasse
- rubelet
- rubious
- ruby anniversary
- ruby blende
- ruby chocolate
- Ruby Creek
- ruby-crowned kinglet
- ruby jubilee
- rubylike
- ruby port
- ruby-red
- ruby red
- ruby shark
- ruby silver
- ruby slippers
- ruby spinel
- rubytail
- rubythroat
- ruby-throated hummingbird
- ruby tiger
- rubyware
- ruby wedding
- rubywood
- star ruby
- Rubygate
- Rubyist
Phrases with ruby
Words that rhyme with ruby
Questions about ruby
- What does ruby mean?
- Ruby means a clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone.
- What is ruby in Hindi?
- Ruby in Hindi is मानिक (mānik), माणिक्य (māṇikya), याक़ूत (yāqūt). See Ruby meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ruby?
- Ruby can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ruby?
- Ruby is pronounced /ˈɹuː.bi/.
- What is the plural of ruby?
- The plural of ruby is rubies.
Words near ruby in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ruby (page history and authors); Ruby (page history and authors); ruby (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ruby (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ruby (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ruby (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ruby (Nepali, 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-AcpoKrane-ruby.wav.
Cite this entry: “ruby.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ruby. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.