agate

[ ag-it ]
See synonyms for agate on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a variegated chalcedony showing curved, colored bands or other markings.

  2. a playing marble made of this substance, or of glass in imitation of it.

  1. Printing. a 5½-point type of a size between pearl and nonpareil.: Compare ruby (def. 6).

Origin of agate

1
1150–1200; Middle English ac(c)ate, achate, agaten (compare Dutch agaat,Old Saxon agāt,Old High German agat), apparently <Old French agathe or Italian agata (initial stress) ≪ Medieval Latin achātēs<Greek achā́tēs

Other words from agate

  • ag·ate·like, ag·a·toid, adjective

Words Nearby agate

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use agate in a sentence

  • There are gold, silver, agate and crystal vases, silver tables and gold plate of every description.

    Ways of War and Peace | Delia Austrian
  • We managed, however, to pick up some interesting Chinese snuff bottles of carved agate, some with pictures painted inside.

    Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, 1921 | Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury
  • An axe poised upon a stake, or an agate on a red-hot axe, was supposed by its movement to indicate the offender.

    Witch, Warlock, and Magician | William Henry Davenport Adams
  • At the far end was a raised dais with a mammoth statue of a kneeling woman, sculptured of the same effulgent, agate material.

    The Jewels of Aptor | Samuel R. Delany
  • Then there were horns of ivory and ebony; emeralds, purple and broidered work, fine linen, coral and agate.

    The Prophet Ezekiel | Arno C. Gaebelein

British Dictionary definitions for agate (1 of 3)

agate1

/ (ˈæɡɪt) /


noun
  1. an impure microcrystalline form of quartz consisting of a variegated, usually banded chalcedony, used as a gemstone and in making pestles and mortars, burnishers, and polishers. Formula: SiO 2

  2. a playing marble of this quartz or resembling it

  1. Also called: ruby printing, US and Canadian (formerly) a size of printer's type approximately equal to 5 1/2 point

Origin of agate

1
C16: via French from Latin achātēs, from Greek akhatēs

British Dictionary definitions for agate (2 of 3)

agate2

/ (əˈɡeɪt) /


adverb
  1. Northern English dialect on the way

Origin of agate

2
C16: a-² + gate³

British Dictionary definitions for Agate (3 of 3)

Agate

/ (ˈæɡeɪt) /


noun
  1. James (Evershed). 1877–1947, British theatre critic; drama critic for The Sunday Times (1923–47) and author of a nine-volume diary Ego (1935–49)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for agate

agate

[ ăgĭt ]


  1. A type of very fine-grained quartz found in various colors that are arranged in bands or in cloudy patterns. The bands form when water rich with silica enters empty spaces in rock, after which the silica comes out of solution and forms crystals, gradually filling the spaces from the outside inward. The different colors are the result of various impurities in the water.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.