emerald

noun em·er·ald \ ˈem-rəld , ˈe-mə- \

|Updated on: 3 Aug 2018

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of emerald

1 : a rich green variety of beryl prized as a gemstone

2 : any of various green gemstones (such as synthetic corundum or demantoid)

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Recent Examples of emerald from the Web

The crumbling hotel looks like Disney’s old Tower of Terror ride, sans cobwebs and coated in the warmer tones of aged bronze, peeling emerald-green wallpaper and shabby red carpeting.

— monica castillo, kansascity, "High-profile cast makes ‘Hotel Artemis’ worth checking out," 7 June 2018
Mount Dora, a town often compared to a New England village, is equally picturesque at 1,000 feet, its white church steeples peeking through an emerald-green tree canopy.

— nancy moreland, The Seattle Times, "Ready for takeoff: A nervous flyer takes on America’s Seaplane City," 3 July 2018
Thurman modeled an emerald and leopard-print gown with a long navy coat in the Paris show on Saturday, which also featured models like Kaia Gerber and Naomi Campbell.

— erika harwood, Vanities, "Uma Thurman Returned to Her Model Roots Over the Weekend," 2 July 2018
The right side of the palette are all warm shades like oranges and golds, while the left has cooler shades like turquoise and emerald.

— jenna rosenstein, Harper's BAZAAR, "Rihanna Is Releasing a New Fenty Beauty Eye Makeup Collection," 25 June 2018
Surrounded by the vibrant, emerald trees that give the city its nickname, Seattle’s Ravenna Woods seem like the perfect place for homeless people to build shelter without disrupting metropolitan life.

— dae shik kim hawkins, The Atlantic, "An App for Ejecting the Homeless," 28 June 2018
Tucked in the emerald backlands of Fayetteville, Georgia, inside a cavernous soundstage at Pinewood Studios, Mara Brock-Akil is in full field marshall mode.

— jason parham, WIRED, "How Oprah’s Network Finally Found Its Voice," 19 June 2018
Its cargo of gold, silver, and emeralds could be worth as much as $17 billion.

— CBS News, "Robot submarine finds "holy grail of shipwrecks" with up to $17 billion in treasure," 23 May 2018
The history of the ship The San José was a 62-gun, three-masted ship -- the flagship and largest galleon of a Spanish fleet carrying gold, silver and emerald from the mines of Potosi, Peru.

— lauren landrum, CNN, "Researchers offer new details how they found a 300-year-old ship that sank with $17 billion in treasure," 22 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'emerald.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Highly valued as gemstones, emeralds are a grass-green variety of beryl. The capacity of emeralds to deflect light and to break white light into its component colors is not high, so cut stones display little brilliancy or fire (flashes of color). The color that gives this gem its value comes from the presence of small amounts of chromium. The most important production of fine-quality gem material is Colombia; emeralds are also mined in Russia, Australia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Synthetic emeralds are identical to natural crystals and may rival them in color and beauty.

Origin and Etymology of emerald

Middle English emerallde, from Anglo-French esmeralde, from Vulgar Latin *smaralda, from Latin smaragdus, from Greek smaragdos — more at smaragd

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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