Word of the Day

: September 5, 2021

adamantine

adjective ad-uh-MAN-teen

What It Means

Adamantine means "rigidly firm" or "unyielding."

// The laws were adamantine and were inscribed on bronze tablets.

// The ushers were adamantine in their refusal to let latecomers into the theater.

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adamantine in Context

"The black-and-white illustrations … conjure up wind-borne snows, cliffs that rear up like waves, and waves that look as adamantine as rock." — Susannah Clapp, The Observer (London), 5 June 2021

Did You Know?

The Greek and Latin word for the hardest imaginable substance, whether applied to a legendary stone or an actual substance, such as diamond, was adamas. Latin poets used the term figuratively for things lasting, firm, or unbending, and the adjective adamantinus was applied in similar contexts. The English noun adamant (meaning "an unbreakable or extremely hard substance") as well as the adjective adamant ("inflexible" or "unyielding") came from adamas. Adamantine, however—which has such figurative uses as "rigid," "firm," and "unyielding"—came from adamantinus. Adamas is also the source of diamond. Diamas, the Latin term for diamond, is an alteration of adamas.