Jewellery

How to spell jewellery

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce jewellery

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jewellery mean?

1. nounDecorative ornaments such as rings, necklaces and bracelets, usually made from precious metals and stones.

Jewellery in a sentence

• She locked her grandmother's jewellery in the hotel safe.

• The insurance policy covers theft of cash and jewellery.

Where does jewellery come from?

Language of origin: French

The word traces back to the Old French jouel or joel, meaning a small precious object or trinket, which itself probably grew from the Latin jocus, meaning 'a joke' or 'a plaything', the same root that gives us 'jewel' and even 'joke'. From the personal ornament sense, English took 'jewel' in the 1200s, and a maker or seller of jewels became a 'jeweller'. The collective term for the wares themselves was then formed by adding the noun ending, giving 'jewellery' in British usage. The British and Canadian spelling keeps the full 'jewel' visible plus the doubled 'l' and the 'ery' cluster, which is exactly the trap: writers tend to drop a syllable or a letter. American English streamlined the same word to 'jewelry', collapsing that middle syllable entirely, so the longer spelling can look wrong to anyone who reads a lot of American text.

How the word is built

• jewel (precious stone or ornament)
• -ler (variant of -er, the maker or trade)
• -y (collective noun suffix)

British and American spelling

Jewellery is the British spelling. American English spells it jewelry.