Nearby Words

adamant

[ad-uh-muhnt, -mant] Example Sentences Origin

ad·a·mant

[ad-uh-muhnt, -mant]
adjective
1.
utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals, urgings, etc.
2.
too hard to cut, break, or pierce.
noun
3.
any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance.
4.
a legendary stone of impenetrable hardness, formerly sometimes identified with the diamond.

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Adamant is an SAT word you need to know.
So is cacophony. Does it mean:
harsh or discordant sound
the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others; the opposed to egoism

Origin:
before 900; Middle English < Old French adamaunt < Latin adamant- (stem of adamas) hard metal (perhaps steel), diamond < Greek, equivalent to a- a-6 + -damant- verbal adjective of damân to tame, conquer; replacing Old English athamans (< Medieval Latin ) and Middle English aymont < Middle French aimant < Vulgar Latin *adimant- < Latin

ad·a·man·cy [ad-uh-muhn-see] , ad·a·mance, noun
ad·a·mant·ly, adverb
un·ad·a·mant, adjective


1. inflexible, rigid, uncompromising.


1. flexible, easygoing, yielding.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Example Sentences
  • They are adamant about keeping this power so they can protect industries to which they have ties.
  • But the test subjects were adamant that they were playing by the rules.
  • Every obstacle has vanished into air; every favorable circumstance has hardened into adamant.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
adamant (ˈædəmənt)
 
adj
1.  unshakable in purpose, determination, or opinion; unyielding
2.  a less common word for adamantine
 
n
3.  any extremely hard or apparently unbreakable substance
4.  a legendary stone said to be impenetrable, often identified with the diamond or loadstone
 
[Old English: from Latin adamant-, stem of adamas, from Greek; literal meaning perhaps: unconquerable, from a-1 + daman to tame, conquer]
 
'adamantly
 
adv

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

adamant
late 14c., "hard, unbreakable," from earlier noun (O.E. aðamans) meaning "a very hard stone," from L. adamantem (nom. adamas), from Gk. adamas (gen. adamantos) "unbreakable," the name of a hypothetical hardest material, perhaps lit. "invincible," from a- "not" + daman "to conquer, to tame" (see
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tame), or else a word of foreign origin altered to conform to Gk. Applied in antiquity to white sapphire, magnet (perhaps via confusion with L. adamare "to love passionately"), steel, emery stone, and especially diamond (see diamond). Figurative sense of "unshakeable" first recorded 1670s.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Easton
Bible Dictionary

Adamant definition


(Heb. shamir), Ezek. 3:9. The Greek word adamas means diamond. This stone is not referred to, but corundum or some kind of hard steel. It is an emblem of firmness in resisting adversaries of the truth (Zech. 7:12), and of hard-heartedness against the truth (Jer. 17:1).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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