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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The alternative, Red Ambience, drenches the car in a fathomless shade of garnet metallic.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 2, 2026
A tiny Sutton Hoo-era gold and garnet mount for an Anglo-Saxon warrior's sword belt has been found during a metal detecting event.
From BBC • Jan. 5, 2025
I prefer the garnet sweet potatoes for the ultimate texture, but I promise any and all varieties will work just fine.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 26, 2023
These areas were silica particles surrounded by the grains of pink garnet, in which two SiO2 polymorphs had formed.
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
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.
