Zircon

//ˈzɜː(ɹ)kən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals, usually of a brown or grey colour and consisting of silica and zirconia. uncountable

    "[…] salamanders, mermaids, chimaeras, wild men o’ the woods, leviathans, all hewn from faultless gems, thrice the bulk of a big man’s body, velvet-dark sapphires, chrysolite, beryl, amethyst, and the yellow zircon that is like transparent gold."

  2. 2
    a common mineral occurring in small crystals; chief source of zirconium; used as a refractory when opaque and as a gem when transparent wordnet
  3. 3
    A crystal of zircon, sometimes used as a false gemstone. countable

    "A zircon princess, seemed to lost her senses"

Synonyms

All synonyms
cyrtolitezirconium silicate

Example

More examples

"The garnets in the detritus are accompanied by zircon, spinel, corundum, cyanite, tourmaline, olivine, etc."

Etymology

From German Zirkon, possibly via French zircon, formed in the 1780s from Arabic زَرْقُون (zarqūn). Doublet of jargoon.

Related phrases

zircon bluezircon lightzircon-syenite

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.