Adamant
adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An unspecified mineral or rock of virtually impenetrable hardness.
"This then is and alwayes hath ben the fashion of Worldlinges, & reprobate persons, to harden their hartes as an adamant stone, against anye thinge that shalbe tolde the for amendement of their lives, and for the savinge of their soules."
- 2 very hard native crystalline carbon valued as a gem wordnet
- 3 An unspecified mineral or rock of virtually impenetrable hardness.; In later use: diamond. historical, poetic
- 4 An unspecified mineral or rock of virtually impenetrable hardness.; In later use: a lodestone. archaic, poetic
"You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant: / But yet you draw not iron, for all my heart / Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw, / And I shall have no power to follow you."
- 5 An unspecified mineral or rock of virtually impenetrable hardness.; A substance that neutralizes lodestones.
"An Adamant hinders the attractive vertue, as also Garlick rubbed on the Magnet; for its attractive faculty is not so valid, but it may be easily deluded, obscured, and superated […]"
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- 6 Chiefly in of adamant: an embodiment of impenetrable hardness; the quality of not being easily destroyed or overcome; impenetrableness, imperviousness, impregnableness; also, of a person: the quality of not being easily affected emotionally; impassiveness, unmovableness. figuratively
"Actual life might seem to her so real that she could not detect the union of shadow and adamant that men call poetry."
- 7 A person or thing having the quality of attracting or drawing; a lodestone, a magnet. figuratively, obsolete
- 1 Firm; unshakeable; unyielding; determined.
"Broiles and Kirkley were adamant about getting out of the lawsuit, but Mike and Dee were equally adamant about not wanting to sign a letter of apology"
- 2 Very difficult to break, pierce, or cut.
"Unprotected matter, however adamant, would have been ground to dust ages ago."
- 1 impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, reason wordnet
Example
More examples"I'm adamant that you should go."
Etymology
From Middle English adamant, adamaunt, from Latin adamantem, accusative singular form of adamās (“hard as steel”), from Ancient Greek ἀδάμας (adámas, “invincible”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + δαμάζω (damázō, “I tame”) or of Semitic origin. Doublet of diamond.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.