Diamond Glossary (All The Lingo You Need To Know)

Diamond Glossary (All The Lingo You Need To Know)

You’ll soon discover there are common words and terms used to describe diamonds, engagement rings and jewellery. Our glossary will help you to understand the terms we use when creating your one-of-a-kind piece.

  • Baguette: A rectangular style of step cut.
  • Blemish: An imperfection or external characteristic on a diamond’s surface.
  • Brilliance: The overall strength of a diamond’s light return from the face-up position. The better and more perfectly proportioned the cut is, the more brilliant the diamond.
  • Brilliant Cut: The most common style of diamond cutting, consisting of triangular, octagonal and kite-shaped facets.
  • Carat: The measurement used for scaling the weight of a diamond. One carat is equal to one-fifth of a gram.
  • Clarity: A graded scale that reflects the amount of imperfections (blemishes and inclusions) within a diamond. It ranges from Flawless (FL) to severely included (I3).
  • Cleavage: A major fracture or weak point in a diamond that is breakable in certain definite planes or directions.
  • Cloud: A cloud-like, semi-transparent area within a diamond created minute pinpoint inclusions.
  • Colour Grade: The scale identifying diamonds according to colour (link to Four Cs).
  • Crown: The part of a faceted diamond above the girdle.
  • Culet: The bottom point of the diamond which may or may not contain a facet.
  • Cut Grade: A ranking based on the combined features of a diamond’s proportions, polish and symmetry (link to Four Cs).
  • Depth: A diamond’s height from culet to table.
  • Facet: A diamond’s flat, polished surfaces.
  • Fancy cut: A diamond shape that is not round.
  • Fire: Flashes of reflected colour light that radiates from the inside.
  • Fluorescence: The capacity of diamonds to emit visible light when exposed to higher energy wavelengths.
  • Four Cs: Used to describe and grade a diamond’s characteristics: cut, clarity, colour and carat weight.
  • Girdle: The narrow band that encircles the perimeter of a diamond. The girdle separates the crown from the pavilion facets and will vary in thickness depending on the style and shape.
  • Hardness: The ability of a diamond to resist scratching.
  • Inclusion: An internal imperfection that typically manifests in the crystal. May or may not be visible to the naked eye but is noticeable when magnified.
  • Pavilion: The portion of a faceted diamond that lies below the girdle.
  • Point: One-hundredth of a carat.
  • Polish: The external finish of a stone, ranges from excellent to poor.
  • Radiance: The reflected and refracted light in a diamond.
  • Rough: An uncut or unpolished diamond.
  • Sparkle: The amount of reflected light that radiates from a diamond’s surface and combines both fire and brilliance.
  • Symmetry: The overall unity and proportion of a stone’s cut. Symmetry ranges from poor to excellent.
  • Table: The horizontal, top, flat facet of the diamond.

If you have any questions on these different, please get in touch with our team today. We are more than happy to explain any questions you might have about diamonds and the perfect setting for your ring.

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