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ruby

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ruby¹

  • /ˈɹuː.bi/

Rhymes with -uːbi

Where it comes from

From Middle English ruby, rube, from Old French rubi, from Medieval Latin rubīnus. Doublet of rubi and rubine.

Etymology 1 sense 7 (“pronunciation guide”) is from the British 5½-point type size (etymology 1 sense 6), used for annotations in printed documents.

noun rubies

  1. countable, uncountable A clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone. “Alas! I have no ruby now,” said the Prince; “my eyes are all that I have left. They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago.”
  2. countable, uncountable A deep red colour. When now I thinke you can behold such sights, / And keepe the naturall Rubie of your Cheekes, / When mine is blanch'd with feare.
  3. countable, uncountable The tincture red or gules. Elgin. Topaz a Saltier and Chief Ruby, on a Canton Pearl a Lyon Rampant Saphyr, which last is their paternal Coat; and the Field Topaz, and Saltier, and Chief Ruby, was the Arms of King Robert the Bruce, they altering the Field from Pearl (as he bore it) to Topaz.
  4. countable, uncountable A ruby hummer, a South American hummingbird, Clytolaema rubricauda.
  5. countable, uncountable A red bird-of-paradise, Paradisaea rubra.
  6. UK, dated, uncountable The size of type between pearl and nonpareil, standardized as 5½-point.

    Similar: agate

  7. countable, uncountable A pronunciation guide written above or beside Chinese characters.
  8. countable, obsolete, uncountable A red spinel.

adjective more ruby · most ruby

  1. Of a deep, red color; ruby-red.

verb rubies · rubying · rubied

  1. poetic, transitive To make red; to redden. With sanguine drops the walls are rubied

ruby²

  • /ˈɹuː.bi/

Rhymes with -uːbi

noun rubies

  1. slang Alternative letter-case form of Ruby (“curry”).

Ruby³

Sounds like ruby · Rhymes with -uːbi

Where it comes from

The female name derives from ruby in the 19th century. The programming language was named after the gemstone.

proper noun

  1. A female given name. Ruby, my dear / Hold back that tear / I know he's gone / Your love has flown
  2. rare A surname.
  3. rare A male given name.
  4. A dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language developed in the 1990s. The final thrust of Bob's argument is that if you strip away all disk I/O (and he cites the move to SSD persistent storage), we'll shift away from interpreted languages such as Ruby and PHP and back to Java.
  5. A city in Alaska.
  6. A ghost town in Arizona.
  7. A town in South Carolina.
  8. A town in Wisconsin.
  9. A settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
  10. A locality in South Gippsland Shire, south eastern Victoria, Australia.

noun

  1. Cockney, slang A curry; ellipsis of Ruby Murray. We're going down the Indian for a Ruby; wanna join us?

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: carmine, ruby-red, crimson, scarlet, red, reddish, ruddy, cerise, cherry-red, cherry, blood-red, chromatic, colored, deep red, turquoise, rusty

Translations

Every language

noun type of gem

Españolrubí
한국어루비 rubi
日本語ルビー rubī, 紅玉 kōkyoku
中文紅寶石 /红宝石 hóngbǎoshí
हिन्दीमानिक mānik, माणिक्य māṇikya, याक़ूत yāqūt, याकूत yākūt, लाल lāl, चूनी cūnī
Kiswahiliyakuti
Portuguêsrubi
Françaisrubis
DeutschRubin
Italianorubino
Ελληνικάρουμπίνι roumpíni
Românărubin
Русскийруби́н rubín, лал lal
Tiếng Việthồng ngọc
العربيةيَاقُوت yāqūt
עבריתאֹדֶם ódem

noun colour

Españolrubí
中文红宝石色 hóngbǎoshísè
Portuguêsrubi
DeutschWeinrot, Rubinrot
Românărubiniu
Русскийруби́новый rubínovyj
עבריתאודם odem

noun pronunciation guide

Españoltexto rubí, caracteres rubí
日本語振り仮名 furigana, ルビ rubi
中文註音 /注音 zhùyīn, 標音 /标音 biāoyīn
Françaiscaracterès rubis
Русскийага́т agát, ру́би rúbi
Tiếng Việtchữ phiên âm, ký tự phiên âm, chữ ruby
עבריתטקסט רובי tekst rubi

adj of a deep red colour

Españolrubí
中文宝石红的 bǎoshíhóng de
Françaisrubis
Deutschweinrot, rubinrot, tiefrot
Românărubiniu
Русскийруби́новый rubínovyj
עבריתאדום עמוק adom amok

name female given name

한국어루비 Rubi
日本語ルビー Rubī
हिन्दीरूबी rūbī
РусскийРуби Rubi

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MLA

"ruby." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ruby. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

ruby. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ruby

Chicago

"ruby." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ruby.

BibTeX
@misc{ruby_2026,
  title = {ruby},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ruby},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}