any of a group of hard, vitreous minerals, silicates of calcium, magnesium, iron, or manganese with aluminum or iron, varying in color: a deep-red transparent variety is used as a gem and as an abrasive.
a deep-red color.
What does garnet mean? A garnet is a deep-red transparent gemstone. This is just one type of garnet, which is a type of mineral. Garnet can also be brown, black, green, or yellow, and some kinds are opaque (nontransparent). Still, the name garnet is most popularly associated with the glassy red gemstone, and the word garnet can also be used to refer to a deep-red color. Garnet gems are traditionally considered semiprecious, which is a label applied to a class of gems that have commercial value but one that is less than that of stones labeled precious. However, garnets can cost much more than some precious stones. Garnet is the traditional birthstone for the month of January. It is also associated with the zodiac signs Capricorn and Aquarius. Along with its use in jewelry and other decorative uses, garnet is also used as an abrasive, which is a material used for grinding or polishing. For example, garnet paper is a kind of sandpaper made with crushed garnet. Example: My mom gave me a necklace with a garnet pendant for my birthday.
1275–1325; Middle English garnet, gernate < Old French gernate, grenade < Latin grānātum granular; cf. pomegranate
A garnet is a semi-precious gemstone that's usually a deep red color. If you were born in January, the garnet is your birthstone. Garnet comes from the Medieval Latin granatum, "of dark red color." One theory says the word was abstracted from pomum granatum, or "pomegranate," which has dark red seeds. Despite this origin, and the fact that garnet itself means "dark red," as well as "a gemstone," garnets actually come in a wide range of colors: pink, green, brown, blue, and even colorless. These silicate stones are mined all over the world and polished into gems.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Around back, an arrow, painted garnet against an otherwise beige facade, points toward a red door sheltered by a small, domed awning.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
The alternative, Red Ambience, drenches the car in a fathomless shade of garnet metallic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
"We could see it was something really exciting as despite more than 1,000 years in the ground we could see glints of the possible garnet setting."
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2024
"Such radial cracks can only form if the host mineral, the garnet, stays very strong," explains Duretz.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2023
He taught me how to eat avocados by melting grape jelly and french dressing together in a saucepan and filling the cup of the pear with the garnet sauce.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
It stressed Pica could be fatal, citing the cases of 21-year-old James Frankish and 19-year-old Owen Garnet.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2025
Crews are also continuing to fight the Garnet fire, a blaze sparked by lightning last week in the Sierra National Forest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2025
That major blaze, the Garnet fire, took off Sunday afternoon in the Sierra National Forest, surging to almost 4,500 acres as of Monday morning, according to fire officials.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2025
Less than a minute later, Philadelphia right wing Garnet Hathaway was given a 10-minute misconduct for making contact with Tampa Bay’s Anthony Cirelli during a timeout for a line change.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2024
I think of all the bossy moments and the perfect ponytail moments and the pressuring moments and what she made me do to Jeff Garnet.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
It said the watch was made up of 397 precious stones, including diamonds, green sapphires, garnets and other gems.
From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2026
Piller juxtaposes opals, garnets and pearls with less conventional materials such as tile fragments, snakeskin, bits of lava from a trip to Iceland, and bullet casings, all bound together with strips of leather or vinyl.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025
The piece of whiteschist from the Dora Maira Massif contained pink garnets in a silvery-white matrix composed of quartz and other minerals.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2023
The 30 pendants and beads that once formed the elaborate necklace were made from Roman coins, gold, garnets, glass and semiprecious stones.
From New York Times ● Dec. 8, 2022
Ah, she was from another world, a world of beautiful dresses of muted greens and garnets.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
