Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A brilliant green to grass-green transparent variety of beryl, used as a gemstone.
  • noun A strong yellowish green.
  • adjective Of a strong yellowish green.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A variety of the mineral beryl, having a deep, clear green color, and when transparent highly prized as a gem.
  • noun The name in Great Britain of a size of printing-type, intermediate between minion (which is larger) and nonpareil (which is smaller), and measuring 138 lines to the foot. It is not used in the United States.
  • noun In entomology, one of several small green geometrid moths, as the grass emerald, Pseudoterpna pruinata, and the Essex emerald, Phorodesma smaragdaria.
  • Of a bright green, like emerald.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of a rich green color, like that of the emerald.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) a fish of the Gulf of Mexico (Gobionellus oceanicus), remarkable for the brilliant green and blue color of the base of the tongue; -- whence the name; -- called also esmeralda.
  • adjective a very durable pigment, of a vivid light green color, made from the arseniate of copper; green bice; Scheele's green; -- also used adjectively.
  • adjective a name given to Ireland on account of the brightness of its verdure.
  • adjective (Min.) See Hiddenite.
  • adjective (Min.) See Zaratite.
  • noun (Min.) A precious stone of a rich green color, a variety of beryl. See beryl.
  • noun (Print.) A kind of type, in size between minion and nonpare�l. It is used by English printers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of a rich green colour.
  • noun Any of various green gemstones, especially a green transparent form of beryl, highly valued as a precious stone.
  • noun emerald green

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a green transparent form of beryl; highly valued as a gemstone
  • noun the green color of an emerald
  • noun a transparent piece of emerald that has been cut and polished and is valued as a precious gem

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English emeraude, from Old French, from Medieval Latin esmeralda, esmeraldus, from Latin smaragdus, from Greek smaragdos; akin to Sanskrit marakatam, probably of Semitic origin; akin to Akkadian barraqtu and Hebrew bāreqet, a kind of gemstone (probably emerald); see brq in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English emeraude, from Old French esmeraude, from Vulgar Latin *esmaralda, *esmaraldus, variant of Latin smaragdus,, from Ancient Greek σμάραγδος, μάραγδος (maragdos), from Semitic root b-r-q “to shoot lightning, to flash in darkness”, compare Hebrew בָּרֶקֶת (bareket) “emerald, flashing gem”, Akkadian barruktu, Arabic buraq “lightning”. Sanskrit मरकत (marakata) from a Semitic language. Persian زمرد (zomorrod) (whence Turkish zümrüt, whence Russian изумруд (izumrud) from Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smaragdos).

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Examples

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  • The H.M.S. Emerald was listed as a "transport" captured at Yorktown in 1781.

    October 29, 2007

  • The Honduran Emerald is a hummingbird endemic to a small area of dry forest in Honduras. Its total world population is less than 200 individuals.

    December 20, 2007

  • a town in Pennsylvania, USA

    February 27, 2008

  • See mangold for verbing.

    September 6, 2011

  • Colombia is by far the world's largest producer of emeralds, followed by Zambia. In the U.S., emeralds have been found in Connecticut, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina.

    June 25, 2015