Adamant

How to spell adamant

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce adamant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does adamant mean?

1. adjectiveRefusing absolutely to change one's mind or position; unshakeably firm.

Adamant in a sentence

• The manager was adamant that the deadline would not move.

• She remained adamant about paying the full deposit in advance.

Where does adamant come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek adamas (stem adamant-), which literally meant 'unconquerable' or 'untameable', built from the negative prefix a- ('not') and the verb daman ('to tame or subdue'). The Greeks used it as a noun for the hardest imaginable substance, a legendary unbreakable stone or metal, and the same root eventually gave us 'diamond' through a separate Latin and Old French path. Latin took it as adamas (adamant-), and English borrowed it in the medieval period, at first as a noun for an impossibly hard rock or, confusingly, for a magnet. The familiar modern adjective meaning 'utterly refusing to change one's mind' is surprisingly recent, taking hold in the twentieth century from the idea of being as hard and immovable as that mythical stone. Remembering that it means 'cannot be tamed' helps fix the single -d- and the -ant ending, since there is no doubling and no -ent.

How the word is built

• a- (not)
• dam (from Greek daman, to tame or subdue)
• -ant (adjective/noun suffix)