A dark blue or black variety of the mineral spinel found in Sri Lanka, used as a gemstone and occasionally confused with sapphire.
Named after Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where this variety of spinel was historically found and mined, with the mineral suffix '-ite' indicating a distinct crystalline mineral form.
Ceylonite and ceylanite are essentially the same mineral with slightly different color varieties, and gem dealers historically used different names to describe them—an example of how confusing mineral nomenclature can be even to scientists!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.