Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A brown to colorless mineral, ZrSiO4, which is heated, cut, and polished to form a brilliant blue-white gem.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals of adamantine luster and yellowish to brownish or reddish color: its hardness is somewhat greater than that of quartz.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Min.) A mineral consisting predominantly of zirconium silicate (Zr2SiO4) occurring in tetragonal crystals, usually of a brown or gray color. It consists of silica and zirconia. A red variety, used as a gem, is called hyacinth. Colorless, pale-yellow or smoky-brown varieties from Ceylon are called jargon.
  • noun an imitation gemstone made of cubic zirconia.
  • noun a coarse-grained syenite containing zircon crystals and often also elæolite. It is largely developed in Southern Norway.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable A mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals, usually of a brown or grey colour and consisting of silica and zirconia.
  • noun countable A crystal of zircon, sometimes used as a false gemstone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a common mineral occurring in small crystals; chief source of zirconium; used as a refractory when opaque and as a gem when transparent

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Zirkon, from Arabic siriqun, from Greek surikon, from Persian āzargūn, fire color : āzar, fire (from Middle Persian ādur, from Old Persian *ātar, āç-, in Āçiyādiya, fire-worship month; see āter- in Indo-European roots) + -gūn, color (from Middle Persian; akin to Avestan gaonəm, hair, complexion (second sense unattested)).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German Zirkon or French zircone, from Arabic زرقون (zarqūn, "cinnabar, bright red"), from Persian زرگون (zargun) / زریون (zaryun), from Middle Persian 𐭦𐭫𐭢𐭥𐭭 (zargōn).

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Examples

Comments

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  • from Persian zargun زرگون, "gold-colored"

    August 30, 2009

  • Aircon to Zircon

    August 31, 2009