AGATE
What does "AGATE" mean?
A banded, hard semiprecious stone, a variety of chalcedony quartz.
Meanings
- A hard, often banded variety of chalcedony, prized as a semiprecious gemstone. He polished a slice of agate until its rings glowed.
- A child's playing marble made of, or made to look like, agate. She won every agate in the schoolyard by lunchtime. informal
- A small type size, historically about 5.5 points, used in newspaper listings. The box scores were set in tiny agate type. technical
Did you know?
- The dense box scores and stock tables in old newspapers are called 'agate' - named after agate type, a size of about 5.5 points, itself named for the small banded stone.
Word origin
From Greek 'achatēs', said by Pliny to be named for the river Achates in Sicily where the stone was first found, via Latin 'achates' and French 'agate'.
Remember it
AGATE = A GATE of stone bands - each ring a ring of the gate you read inward.
A little poem
Slow water laid down
ring on patient ring of stone -
a clock that won't tick.
haiku
What it teaches
Beauty often comes in patient layers; what looks like one stone is a thousand slow returns.
Quick facts
What does AGATE mean?
A banded, hard semiprecious stone, a variety of chalcedony quartz.
Is AGATE a valid word?
Yes — AGATE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is AGATE?
AGATE has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does AGATE come from?
From Greek 'achatēs', said by Pliny to be named for the river Achates in Sicily where the stone was first found, via Latin 'achates' and French 'agate'.
What can AGATE teach us?
Beauty often comes in patient layers; what looks like one stone is a thousand slow returns.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.