diamond
pronunciation
How to pronounce diamond in British English:
UK [ˈdaɪəmənd]
How to pronounce diamond in American English:
US [ˈdaɪəmənd]
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- Noun:
- a transparent piece of diamond that has been cut and polished and is valued as a precious gem
- very hard native crystalline carbon valued as a gem
- a playing card in the minor suit of diamonds
- the area of a baseball field that is enclosed by 3 bases and home plate
- the baseball playing field
Word Origin
- diamond
- diamond: [13] Diamond is an alteration of adamant, a rather archaic term which nowadays refers to hard substances in general, but formerly was also used specifically for ‘diamond’. The alteration appears to have come about in Latin of post-classical times: adamant- (stem of Latin adamas) evidently became Vulgar Latin *adimant- (source of French aimant ‘magnet’), which appears to have opened the way to confusion, or at least association, with words beginning dia-. The result was medieval Latin diamant-, which passed into English via Old French diamant.=> adamant
- diamond (n.)
- early 14c., from Old French diamant, from Medieval Latin diamantem (nominative diamas), from Vulgar Latin *adiamantem (altered by influence of the many Greek words in dia-), from Latin adamantem (nominative adamans) "the hardest metal," later, "diamond" (see adamant). Playing card suit is from 1590s; Sense in baseball is American English, 1875.
Example
- 1. The indian allegations surprised some international diamond industry executives .
- 2. The toughest materials around are diamond ( a type of crystalline carbon ) and silicon carbide .
- 3. Jenny looks inside the advice diamond .
- 4. De beers has suspended production at one of its biggest diamond mines .
- 5. This one is meant to resemble a diamond .