''spinel'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260717141042-00-⌔

spinel - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

spinel (countable and uncountable, plural spinels)

• (mineralogy) Any of several hard minerals of cubic symmetry that are mixed oxides of magnesium and aluminium and are used as gemstones of various colours.
  • ✤ Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […]. (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)¹
• (solid state chemistry) Any crystalline material, not necessarily an oxide, that possesses the same crystal structure as this mineral.

Noun

spinel (countable and uncountable, plural spinels)

• (obsolete) Spindle; the amount of yarn that fits on a spindle.
  • ✤ […] raised the price of that staple of yarn (of one Spinel in the pound weight) from 23d. to 26d. per Spinel.²
  • ✤ 339, 612 yards of dimities, muslinets, jaconets, and booked muslins, from rod. to 20s. per yard, and, 4000. spinels of thread and yarn, were bleached by him in 1791, and 45 people were employed in the work.³
  • ✤ … that is fit for any hundred of the reed; and like- wise the number of right telled yarn in spinels, slips, and cuts, that will be sufficient to make any number of ells from 1 to 60, subject, and merely consisted of tables or ready […]⁴

Etymology 1

French spinelle, perhaps from Latin spina (“a thorn, a prickle”), in allusion to its pointed crystals.

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Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /spɪˈnɛl/, /ˈspɪn.əl/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɛl, -ɪnəl

Etymology 2

From Middle English spinel, from Old English spinel (“spindle; the amount of yard on a spindle”), whence also the usual modern form, English spindle.

Printed 2026-07-17.

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Footnotes

1. 2012 March, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist ‎${}^{[1]}$, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 June 2012, page 128: ↩

2. 1726, Lindsay, pamphlet, quoted in 1920, John Horner, The Linen Trade of Europe During the Spinning-wheel Period, page 269: ↩

3. 1795, Sir John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn Up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes. By Sir John Sinclair,…, page 70: ↩

4. 1876, English Mechanic and Mirror of Science and Art, page 417: ↩