facet

American  

[fas-it] / ˈfæs ɪt /

noun

• facets
  plural

1. a small, polished, flat surface, usually in the shape of a polygon, such as one of the surfaces of a cut gem.

2. a smooth, flat surface cut on a fragment of rock by the action of water, windblown sand, etc.

3. aspect; phase.

   They carefully examined every facet of the argument.

4. Architecture. any of the faces of a column cut in a polygonal form.

5. Zoology. one of the corneal lenses of a compound arthropod eye.

6. Anatomy. a small, smooth, flat area on a hard surface, especially on a bone.

7. Dentistry. a small, highly burnished area, usually on the enamel surface of a tooth, produced by abrasion between opposing teeth in chewing.

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verb (used with object)

faceted, faceting, facetted, facetting

1. to cut facets on.

facet British  

/ ˈfæsɪt /

noun

1. any of the surfaces of a cut gemstone

2. an aspect or phase, as of a subject or personality

3. architect the raised surface between the flutes of a column

4. any of the lenses that make up the compound eye of an insect or other arthropod

5. anatomy any small smooth area on a hard surface, as on a bone

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verb

1. (tr) to cut facets in (a gemstone)

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• facets
  plural

Etymology

Origin of facet

First recorded in 1615–25, from the French facette “little face”; see face ( def. ), -ette ( )

Explanation

A facet is one side or aspect of something. If you’re thinking about quitting your day job to become a circus performer, you should first consider every facet of what your new life would be like. Facet, which is related to the word face, can also refer to one of the flat “faces” of a diamond or other gem. This was the word’s original definition, and it was evidently seen as an apt metaphor for one side of a complex idea. When a problem has many parts to consider (or when it’s just a huge mess), you can describe it as multifaceted.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

facet facets faceted faceting facetted facetting

“They really bring a cinematic eye to that facet of it.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

In a world where artificial intelligence threatens to upend every facet of work and life, some things still remain sacred.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

In France, Yuka is one facet of a wider food-tracking phenomenon.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

Gans wrote about this facet of the history recently in Slate.

From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2026

Yet in later life, his attitude toward these skills reflected a curious facet of his personality: having mastered them, he abandoned them almost entirely to move on to new challenges.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

This allowed the actors the unusual opportunity to explore new facets of their characters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

Anduril has steadily expanded into nearly all facets of defense contracting, from jets to submarines and counterdrone systems.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

A glance at Scheffler's record shows metronomic consistency across all facets of his game.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

This Juneteenth, we should try to confront and reclaim this holiday’s contradictory history, in all its facets.

From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2026

In the almost darkness, I couldn’t see much, but I could feel the cold smoothness of the gold ingots, the pictures pressed into the coins, the perfect facets of the gemstones.

From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk

I’m pleased to report that the car’s most beguiling bit of cabin jewelry—the faceted gear selector, like a steampunk gaming cube embedded in the center console—made it through to the latest redesign.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2025

The workers check and replace the large plastic bulbs on the long strings of lights and then use pulleys and hoists to hang and sometimes muscle those long strands of faceted lights onto the branches.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2025

In a moment of great danger, “the bergs are many, lavender and faceted, when the air is full of floating ice crystals.”

From Scientific American ● Aug. 20, 2023

Each of her 12 sculptures contains large panes of old-fashioned security glass set into geometrically faceted metal armatures, up to nine feet long, that Overton dragged from salvage shops and sometimes the garbage.

From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2022

They were cool, measuring, as faceted as finely cut jewels; they traveled over her face methodically, cataloguing her eyelashes, her nose, her mouth, her chin.

From "Ash" by Malinda Lo

The cubist faceting of both figures and ground gives each panel a density of surface and a propulsive, lilting energy, like swing jazz but with spiked edges.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 23, 2020

For instance, it’s easy to read visual similarities and divergences in the Cubist faceting of paired landscapes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2016

Here she has done a good job of sculpting and faceting the building’s shape, such that from some angles it might be thought to soar.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 6, 2015

The most remarkable here in terms of size and faceting include the exquisitely simple “Shah Jahan Diamond” and the startlingly kaleidoscopic brilliant-cut stone known as the Idol’s Eye.

From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2015

Sometimes he’d recut diamonds or consult on high-level faceting projects.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Kerans watches the "countless reflections of the sun move across the surface in huge sheets of fire, like the blazing facetted eyes of gigantic insects".

From The Guardian ● Jul. 13, 2012

The rubbing down process does not leave a facetted surface, but only a coarse roughly rounded or flattened surface.

From A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public by Frank Bertram Wade

The sloping surface of the upper cone is facetted with thirty-two facets in the full cut brilliant, while the lower cone receives twenty-four.

From A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public by Frank Bertram Wade

If almost any clear, colorless facetted stone is placed in the sunlight and a card held before it to receive the reflections, it will be seen that rainbow-like reflections appear on the card.

From A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public by Frank Bertram Wade

They are less expensive to cut than fully facetted stones and do not have the snappy brilliancy of the latter.

From A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public by Frank Bertram Wade

In general, however, the slitting or cleaving, the rubbing down to shape, the smoothing out of all scratches and the facetting and polishing are done somewhat similarly by all lapidaries.

From A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public by Frank Bertram Wade