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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A clear hard variety of corundum used as a gemstone that is usually blue but may be any color except red.
  2. n. A corundum gem.
  3. n. The blue color of a gem sapphire.
  4. adj. Made of or resembling a gem sapphire.
  5. adj. Having the color of a blue sapphire.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A precious stone next in hardness to the diamond, and nearly as valuable when of fine quality: a variety of the mineral corundum. It embraces the ruby, the Oriental amethyst, the Oriental topaz, and the Oriental emerald; the name, however, is always, except by modern mineralogists, limited to the transparent blue varieties of corundum. The two shades most highly valued are that which most closely resembles the blue of the cornflower and the rich velvety blue variety. Sapphires are found in Burma, British India, and Ceylon in Asia, and in Australia; also in North Carolina and near Helena in Montana.
  2. n. The color of the sapphire; blue.
  3. n. In heraldry, a tincture, the color blue, in blazoning by means of precious stones. Compare blazon, n., 2.
  4. n. In ornithology, a sapphirewing.
  5. Resembling sapphire; of a deep brilliant blue.

Wiktionary

  1. n. a clear deep blue variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone.
  2. n. a white, yellow, or purple variety of corundum, either clear or translucent.
  3. n. a deep blue colour.
  4. n. a type of South American hummingbird.
  5. adj. of a deep blue colour.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Min.) Native alumina or aluminium sesquioxide, Al2O3; corundum; esp., the blue transparent variety of corundum, highly prized as a gem.
  2. n. The color of the gem; bright blue.
  3. n. (Zoöl.) Any humming bird of the genus Hylocharis, native of South America. The throat and breast are usually bright blue.
  4. adj. Of or resembling sapphire; sapphirine; blue.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a transparent piece of sapphire that has been cut and polished and is valued as a precious gem
  2. n. a light shade of blue
  3. n. a precious transparent stone of rich blue corundum valued as a gemstone
  4. adj. of something having the color of a blue sapphire

Etymologies

  1. Old French saphir, from Latin sapphirus, from Ancient Greek ἡ σάπφειρος (hē sáppheiros, "precious stone, gem") (2nd decl.; transliterated /sápfiros/ in Biblos - Strong's Greek, entry 4552, sometimes spelt σάμφειρος in Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch or unusually hyphened as σάπ-φειρος by Leander van Ess in "Hē palaia diathēkē kata tous hebdomēkonta" published in 1835), from a Semitic language (compare Hebrew סַפִּיר (sappir) (cf. Strong's Concordance: entry 5601, probably ultimately from a non-Semitic source such as Sanskrit शनिप्रिय (śanipriya, "dear to Saturn") and dark-coloured stone (cf. Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English saphir, from Old French safir, from Latin sapphīrus, from Greek sappheiros, of Semitic origin; akin to Hebrew sappîr, a precious stone. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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‘sapphire’ has been looked up 3268 times, loved by 11 people, added to 76 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 15.