Standard Lemma guide

tourmaline

noun · 3 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.

  • /ˈtʊɚ.mə.lɪn/
  • /ˈtʊɚ.məˌlin/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: T UH1 R M AH0 L IY2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A complex black or dark-coloured borosilicate mineral, compounded with various chemical elements and considered a semi-precious stone.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: chemistry, geography, geology, mineralogy, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A transparent gemstone cut from it.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a mineral that is a complex borosilicate and hydroxide of aluminum containing iron and magnesium and calcium and lithium and sodium; it is usually black but occurs in transparent colored forms that are used as gemstones

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: mineral, transparent gem

Narrower terms: schorl

History

Etymology

From French tourmaline, ultimately from Sinhalese තෝරමල්ලී (tōramallī, “carnelian”)

Across languages

Translations

33 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: տուրմալին (turmalin) — both senses
  • Azerbaijani: turmalin — both senses
  • Bulgarian: турмали́н (turmalín) — both senses
  • Catalan: turmalina — both senses
  • Chinese Cantonese: 電氣石 /电气石 (din6 hei3 sek6) — both senses
  • Chinese Mandarin: 電氣石 /电气石 (diànqìshí) — both senses
  • Chinese Mandarin: 托瑪琳 /托玛琳 (tuōmǎlín) — both senses
  • Wu Chinese: 電氣石 /电气石 — both senses
  • Czech: turmalín — both senses
  • Dutch: toermalijn — both senses
  • Finnish: turmaliini — both senses
  • French: tourmaline — both senses
  • Galician: turmalina — both senses
  • German: Turmalin — both senses
  • Greek: Τουρμαλίνης (Tourmalínis) — both senses
  • Hindi: तुरमली (turamlī) — both senses
  • Hindi: वैक्रांत (vaikrānt) — both senses
  • Hungarian: turmalin — both senses
  • Italian: tormalina — both senses
  • Japanese: トルマリン (torumarin) — both senses
  • Japanese: 電気石 (denkiseki) — both senses
  • Kazakh: турмалин (turmalin) — both senses
  • Korean: 전기석 (jeon'giseok) — both senses
  • Kyrgyz: турмалин (turmalin) — both senses
  • Malayalam: ടൂർമലിൻ (ṭūṟmaliṉ) — both senses
  • Persian: ترمالین (tormâlin) — both senses
  • Portuguese: turmalina — both senses
  • Romanian: turmalină — both senses
  • Russian: турмали́н (turmalín) — both senses
  • Sinhalese: තෝරමල්ලි (tōramalli) — both senses
  • Spanish: turmalina — both senses
  • Swedish: turmalin — both senses
  • Swedish: askblåsare — both senses