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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

gem.

A precious stone, usually of substantial monetary value or prized for its beauty or shine.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/d͡ʒɛm//d͡ʒɪm/pin-pen-merger

  1. A precious stone, usually of substantial monetary value or prized for its beauty or shine.

    countable · uncountable

  2. Any precious or highly valued thing or person.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
    She's an absolute gem.

  3. Any precious or highly valued thing or person. Anything of small size, or expressed within brief limits, which is regarded as a gem on account of its beauty or value, such as a small picture, a verse of poetry, or an epigram.

    broadly · countable · figuratively · uncountable
    a gem of wit

  4. Any precious or highly valued thing or person. Internet content of good quality.

    Internet · broadly · countable · figuratively · uncountable

  5. A gemma or leaf bud.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable

  6. A geometrid moth of the species Orthonama obstipata.

    countable · uncountable

  7. A package containing programs or libraries for the Ruby programming language.

    countable · uncountable

  8. A size of type between brilliant (4-point) and diamond (4½-point), running 222 lines to the foot.

    obsolete · uncommon · uncountable

  9. A strong, dominating pitching performance.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English gemme, gimme, yimme, ȝimme, from Old English ġimm, from Proto-West Germanic *gimmu (“gem”) and Old French gemme (“gem”), both from Latin gemma (“a swelling bud; jewel, gem”). Doublet of gemma and Gemma.

verb/d͡ʒɛm//d͡ʒɪm/pin-pen-merger

  1. To adorn with, or as if with, gems.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English gemme, gimme, yimme, ȝimme, from Old English ġimm, from Proto-West Germanic *gimmu (“gem”) and Old French gemme (“gem”), both from Latin gemma (“a swelling bud; jewel, gem”). Doublet of gemma and Gemma.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.