a compact, opaque, cryptocrystalline variety of quartz, usually colored red: often used in decorative carvings.
Also called jasper ware;. Also called cameo ware. a fine, hard stoneware introduced c1775 by Wedgwood, stained various colors by metallic oxides, with raised designs in white.
a city in NW Alabama.
a resort town in SW Alberta, in SW Canada, on the Athabasca River: headquarters for Jasper National Park.
a male given name, form of Caspar.
an opaque impure microcrystalline form of quartz, red, yellow, brown, or dark green in colour, used as a gemstone and for ornamental decoration
Also called: jasper ware. a dense hard stoneware, invented in 1775 by Wedgwood, capable of being stained throughout its substance with metallic oxides and used as background for applied classical decoration
1300–50; Middle English jaspe, jaspre < Middle French; Old French jaspe < Latin iaspis < Greek iáspis < Semitic; compare Arabic yashb
1895–1900, special use of proper name Jasper
Jasper is a hard, semiprecious stone that's usually red. One of your birthstones is jasper if you were born in the month of March. Jasper is a type of quartz that can be brown, yellow, or green, but is most often a mottled, brick red color. When geologists find jasper embedded in cracks of volcanic rocks, it looks dull and drab, but it's beautifully shiny after being polished. Jasper has been used in jewelry and decorative objects for thousands of years. The word jasper means "spotted or speckled stone," from a Greek root.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Chakra practitioners believe that a red stone, such as jasper, can help with increasing confidence, overcoming fear and achieving stability.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 24, 2023
And Oregon produces different varieties of sunstone and jasper.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2022
How did that piece of jasper get there?
From Salon ● May 6, 2022
Just south of Ocean Shores at the tip of the C-shaped bay, you’ll find Damon Point, a half-mile peninsula famous locally for post-storm agates and red and green jasper.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 9, 2022
“That’s because each piece of jasper has its own spirit. The rock will tell us who it is, not the other way around.”
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Jasper Ridge is far too small to support its own resident puma population.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 28, 2026
These fresher faces — Jasper Dolphin, Rachel Wolfson, Zach Holmes — prove brave and resilient when allowed to participate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Artists have captured the spirit of the country on canvas for centuries, from Emanuel Leutze’s ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’ to Jasper Johns’s ‘Three Flags.’
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Since his arrest in January, several of Silvey's works - Jasper Jones, Runt and Rhubarb - have been removed from teaching lists in schools in Western Australia and Victoria.
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
He seemed quite at home, and Jasper certainly recognized him, but these two facts did not fit in with Maxim’s words to Mrs. Danvers.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
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.
