Standard Lemma guide

tanzanite

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈtænzənaɪt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈtænzəˌnaɪt/

1

noun

Meaning 1

A trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania, used as a gemstone.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: blue zoisite, pleochroic zoisite, vanadium zoisite

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Tanzania + -ite (suffix forming nouns denoting minerals or rocks), coined by Henry B. Platt, a vice president of the American jeweler Tiffany & Co. when it first marketed the gem in 1968: see the October 3, 1968, quotation.

Across languages

Translations

36 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: تنزانيت — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Armenian: տանզանիտ (tanzanit) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Bulgarian: танзанит (tanzanit) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Chinese Mandarin: 丹泉石 (dānquánshí) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Chinese Mandarin: 坦桑寶石 /坦桑宝石 (tǎnsāng bǎoshí) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Chinese Mandarin: 坦桑石 (tǎnsāngshí) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Dutch: tanzaniet — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Esperanto: tanzanito — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Estonian: tansaniit — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Finnish: tansaniitti — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • French: tanzanite — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Galician: tanzanita — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • German: Tansanit — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Greek: τανζανίτης (tanzanítis) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Hebrew: טנזניט — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Italian: tanzanite — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Japanese: タンザナイト (tanzanaito) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Korean: 탄자나이트 (tanjanaiteu) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Lithuanian: tanzanitas — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Macedonian: танзани́т (tanzanít) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Malay: tanzanit — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Norwegian Bokmål: tanzanitt — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: tanzanitt — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Pashto: تانزانيت — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Persian: تانزانیت — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Polish: tanzanit — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Portuguese: tanzanite — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Romanian: tanzanit — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Russian: танзани́т (tanzanít) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Slovene: tanzanit — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Spanish: tanzanita — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Swahili: tanzanaiti — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Swedish: tanzanit — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Tamil: தன்சானைற்று (taṉcāṉaiṟṟu) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Ukrainian: танзаніт (tanzanit) — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania
  • Vietnamese: tanzanit — trichroic violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite mined in Tanzania