Sapphire Gem & Jewelry Glossary loose sale price & Sapphire Gemstone Information
Gem & Jewelry Glossary
Akoya: Cultured pearls grown primarily in Japan and China.
Baroque: A pearl with balance of form. Equal or corresponding characteristics on opposite sides.
Blemish: An imperfection on a diamond's surface that may or may not be recognizable.
Body color: The basic color of a pearl: white, cream, yellow, pink, silver or black. A pearl can also have a hint of secondary color (see overtone).
Brilliance: The amount of white light reflected that radiates from the diamond's surface. A more properly proportioned cut results in a more brilliant diamond.
Brilliant Cut: A round diamond that contains 58 facets.
Calcium Carbonate: The main mineral component of a pearl's nacre, or outer layer. Mostly calcite and aragonite.
Carat: Measurement used for the weight of a diamond. One carat is equal to 100 points or one fifth of a gram.
Center Stone: The central, dominant stone in a piece of jewelry set with multiple stones. Also described as the solitaire.
Choker: A pearl necklace measuring 16 inches long.
Clarity: A graded scale that measures the amount of imperfections within a diamond. The ranges from flawless (FL) to severely included (I3).
Cloud: Minor inclusions clustered within a diamond.
Color: Color tones of a diamond that are graded on a scale of D (colorless) to Z (yellow brown).
Comfort Fit: The rounded finish on a ring's interior, designed to provide additional comfort for long-wear.
Culet: The bottom point of the diamond which may or may not contain a facet.
Cultured pearls: Pearls cultivated by artificial insertion of a small bead, often made of mother-of-pearl and mantle tissue, into an oyster. Patented by Kokichi Mikimoto in 1916.
Cut (Make): The proportion and symmetry of a diamond determines the stone's brilliance and dispersion capabilities.
Ideal Cut: A round diamond that is perfectly proportioned.
Very Good Cut (Premium): A proportioned cut that maximizes brilliance, reflection and fire. Meets the highest standards and dimensions for a quality diamond.
Good Cut: An acceptable and more reasonably priced cut with decent proportions.
Fair Cut: While still capturing some sparkle, this cut is lacking in brilliance and proportion when compared to the Good and Very Good cuts.
Poor Cut: A clearly dull and lifeless diamond that sacrifices proportion and quality.
Depth: A diamond's height from culet to table.
Depth %: Height divided by width. Determines brilliance and sparkle.
Eye-clean: When viewing with the naked eye, a diamond with no visible inclusions or imperfections.
Facet: A diamond's flat, polished surfaces.
Fire: Reflected spectral colors that radiate from the inside.
Fluorescence: When exposed to ultraviolet light, an illuminating bluish color that glows from the diamond surface, which usually doesn't affect appearance or quality.
Freshwater pearl: A pearl produced by a fresh water mollusk.
Girdle: A diamond's outer edge or periphery.
Head: Attached to the ring shank, the head of the ring holds the center stone or solitaire in place.
Head Shape: The head shape of any ring is determined by the shape of the gemstone that it is intended to hold. For example, the head that holds an ideal-cut diamond is round, where a head intended to hold a princess-cut diamond is square.
Head Size Range: Describes the different carat weights of diamonds that may be mounted into one particular head.
Inclusion: An imperfection within a diamond that typically manifests in the crystal. May or may not be visible to the naked eye but noticeable when magnified.
Irritant: Small parasite or particle which catalyzes the pearl-growing process. Can be naturally occurring or artificially inserted.
Luster: A combination of the pearl's exterior shine and glow from within. Created by light reflected from tiny crystals in the nacre.
Mabe pearl: Cultured pearls grown against an oyster's shell rather than in an oyster's tissue. The result is a semi-spherical pearl with a relatively flat back.
Mantle: Soft tissue located inside an oyster. Man-made pearls are formed when the mantle surrounds a surgically inserted nucleus.
Matinee: A pearl necklace measuring 24 inches long.
Metal Type: Fine jewelry is generally designed in the precious metals gold, platinum and silver.
Millimeter: Unit of measure in the metric system used to determine a pearl's diameter, equal to about 1/25th of an inch.
Mohs hardness scale: A scale developed by Friedrich Mohs to determine the relative hardness of minerals and other objects. The scale assigns numbers 1-10 to specific minerals, softest to hardest, using a scratch test.
Mother of Pearl: The iridescent lining of an oyster's shell. Often used as a nucleus for a man-made pearl.
Natural pearls: Pearls formed by an irritant without surgical implementation.
Nacre: Pronounced nay-ker. The crystalline substance secreted by an oyster to form a pearl. The microscopic crystals of nacre refract light to produce a pearl's color and luster.
Nucleus: The object which is artificially inserted into a pearl's mollusk during the cultivation process. This becomes the center of a finished pearl.
Overtone: A hint of a secondary color (see body color): pinkish, silverish, or bluish.
Opera: A pearl necklace measuring 32 inches long.
Orient: The rainbow effect that seems to encircle a pearl's surface.
Pavilion: A diamond's bottom portion.
Point: One hundredth of a carat.
Polish: The external finish of a stone, which ranges from excellent to poor.
Princess: A pearl necklace measuring 18 inches long.
Ring Setting: Collective term for the shank and the head of the ring before the center stone has been set.
Ring Size: A measurement, generally somewhere between 4 and 13, that is determined by the diameter of the finger which will wear the ring, that permits a ring to be easily slipped over the knuckle. To determine your ring size, see our ring guide.
Rope: A pearl necklace measuring 40+ inches long.
Roundness: Scale distinguishing between various degrees of roundness. Classifications include: all-round, mostly-round, slightly off-round and off-round.
Shank: The part of the ring that encircles the finger. Strictly speaking, the shank of the ring does not include the head.
Side Stone: A stone set alongside or encircling a center stone.
South Sea: Large pearls created by tropical oysters. Grown in Australia, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Phillipines.
Sparkle: The amount of reflected light that radiates from a diamond's surface and combines both fire and brilliance.
Spherical: Having a round, globular shape.
Surface markings: Imperfections on the pearl's surface. Often described as spots, blisters, or indentations.
Symmetry: The overall unity and proportion of a stone's cut. Symmetry ranges from poor to excellent.
Table: The largest facet on the top of the diamond.
Table %: The total diameter of the diamond's table in direct proportion to its overall width. A table which is too small or too large will negatively affect its brilliance and dispersion
Tahitian Pearls: Pearls grown mostly in French Polynesia. Well known for their beautiful colors, ranging anywhere from silverish-gray to purplish-black.
Thickness: The measurement, in millimeters, that indicates the width of a band or shank.
Tone: A classification scale, ranging from light to dark, which indicates (specifies) the color intensity of fancy colored pearls.
Uniformity: The grading system used to denote how well pearls in a piece of jewelry match one another. Uniformity can be excellent, good, or fair.
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