adamant
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Alternative forms
- adamaunt (obsolete)
[edit] Etymology
From Latin adamantem, accusative singular form of adamās (“hard as steel”), from Ancient Greek ἀδάμας (adamas, “invincible”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + δαμάζω (damazo, “I tame”).
[edit] Pronunciation
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Audio (US) (file)
[edit] Adjective
adamant (comparative more adamant, superlative most adamant)
- resistant to reason; determined; inflexible; unshakeable; unyielding
[edit] Synonyms
- See also Wikisaurus:obstinate
[edit] Translations
resistant to reason; determined; inflexible; unshakeable; unyielding
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[edit] Noun
adamant (plural adamants)
- a rock or mineral held by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness
- an embodiment of impregnable hardness
- a magnet; a lodestone
- 1594–96, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream:
- You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant:
- But yet you draw not iron, for all my heart
- Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw,
- And I shall have no power to follow you.
- 1594–96, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream:
[edit] Quotations
- 1956 — Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, p 34
- Unprotected matter, however adamant, would have been ground to dust ages ago.
[edit] Derived terms
- adamance n
- adamantane a
- adamantean a
- adamantine a
- adamantly adv
[edit] References
- adamant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
[edit] Latin
[edit] Verb
adamant
- third-person plural present active indicative of adamō