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emery

UK/ˈɛməɹi/US/ˈɛməɹi/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,066 of 15,258neutral

Emery is a hard dark mineral used as an abrasive. An emery board, emery paper, emery powder.

It is a natural mix of corundum and iron oxide, and corundum is the same mineral as sapphire, which is why it cuts so well. An emery board is the nail file most people own, and emery cloth is the metalworker's version.

Definitions of emery

  1. 1nounemeryA hard dark mineral used as an abrasive.C1

    “The mechanic rubbed the rust off the metal with a strip of emery cloth.”

emery is a mineral.

Where it comes from

French emeri comes through Italian from a Greek word for the stone.

  1. Italian

    smeriglio

  2. Old French

    esmeril

  3. French

    émeri

  4. English, today

    emery

From French émeri, from Old French esmeril, from Italian smeriglio.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

emery in the wild

  • The emery ball differs from the spitball, in which the ball is doctored by applying saliva or Vaseline.

    Emery ball

  • Vaseline or saliva smooths the baseball, while the emery paper roughens it.

    Emery ball

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.