gem
Americannoun
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a cut and polished precious stone or pearl fine enough for use in jewelry.
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something likened to or prized as such a stone because of its beauty or worth.
His painting was the gem of the collection.
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a person held in great esteem or affection.
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British Printing. a 4-point type of a size between brilliant and diamond.
verb (used with object)
adjective
noun
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a precious or semiprecious stone used in jewellery as a decoration; jewel
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a person or thing held to be a perfect example; treasure
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a size of printer's type, approximately equal to 4 point
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a type of small sweet cake
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gem
1275–1325; Middle English gemme < Old French < Latin gemma bud, jewel; replacing Middle English yimme, Old English gim ( m ) < Latin
Explanation
A gem is a precious or semi-precious stone, or a jewel. A silversmith might experiment with adding gems to her rings and necklaces. The sparkly gem in your grandmother's fancy ring might be a diamond, while your aunt appears to prefer the polished greenish-blue gems called turquoise. If you're trained to identify and put a value on gems, you can call yourself a gemologist. Gem is from the Old French gemme, which has a Latin root, gemma, "precious stone or jewel."
Vocabulary lists containing gem
In A Sedimental Mood: Rock and Gem Vocabulary
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Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 2
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for January 27–February 2, 2024
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Hence, this gem of an anthology series, wherein real-life residents recount the stories that made them regionally famous or nationally infamous, while familiar actors and comedians recreate their stories.
From Salon ● Jul. 1, 2026
“Colima is a true gem for being so small and so little-known. That’s its virtue,” says chef Nico Mejía, a local star.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
With that, he led a quintet through the music of “Members, Don’t Git Weary,” a 1968 gem within Roach’s catalog, interpreting its six tracks more along lines of harmonic and emotional content than song form.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
There are dozens of accommodation options too, from hostels to brand new luxury getaways advertising the area as Morocco's hidden gem.
From BBC ● May 24, 2026
He was knocking on the bottom, trying to get the gem to slide out onto the table.
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
With commercial tourism, social media and vlogging much of today’s world feels overexposed and overexplained, with seemingly every destination photographed, every experience reviewed and all hidden gems channeled into content.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
De Beers is majority-owned by British mining giant Anglo American, which is seeking to offload its stake as the natural diamond market faces intense pressure from laboratory-grown gems.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
Wilber and his sister had spent days decorating the cap, bedazzling the bottom half in blue and white gems — the colors of the Nicaraguan flag.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
He frequently plucks from his tremendous word hoard gems that will send you to the dictionary: bonxie, fankle, rupestral, stramash, zawn.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
They were in a magic world of gems, a glade under trees whose leaves were jewels.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
A search for “Barbie” on the company’s website returns rose-gold jewelry and pink gemmed rings.
From Reuters ● Jul. 23, 2023
Moreover, the first images of crosses portray them more as slender, gemmed staffs than as sturdy instruments of execution.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 14, 2017
The passing rivers, the sounds rising from street gratings, the gemmed bridges were recognizable in name, but transposed to a different key.
From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2014
Depicted in his role as minister of justice, he wears an impressively gemmed and starchy crown, but the face below it looks miserable.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2010
The pieces are brilliantly clever, gemmed with paradoxes and quaint turns of thought, but they are not fiction in the accepted sense of the word.
From Oscar Wilde by Ingleby, Leonard Cresswell
That door was flung back, and in the square of dripping darkness stood Creed Bonbright, his face death white, his eyes wide and fixed, the rain gemming his uncovered yellow hair.
From Judith of the Cumberlands by MacGowan, Alice
Bells of dew glittered upon the bushes rooted in the walls, and upon the ivy-grown pillars; and gemming the countless spiders' webs stretched from bough to bough, showed they were all unbroken.
From The Lancashire Witches A Romance of Pendle Forest by Ainsworth, William Harrison
Like some palpable, suffocating substance it filled the plain and mounted far up into the air, even to the blue-black sky, whence a million gemming stars pierced it with their diamond lances.
From With Hoops of Steel by Smith, Dan
When I woke I saw Mulvaney, the night-dew gemming his mustache, leaning on his rifle at picket, lonely as Prometheus on his rock, with I know not what vultures tearing his liver.
From International Short Stories English by Various
CORNFLOWERS, you say, just cornflowers, gemming the golden grain; Ah no!
From Rhymes of a Red Cross Man by Service, Robert W. (Robert William)
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.
