jewellery

• jewelry (US, sometimes Canada)

Inherited from Middle English juelrye, from Old French juelerye, equivalent to jewel +‎ -ery.

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒuː(ə)lɹi/, (US, also) /ˈd͡ʒʊ-/^[1]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒuː(ə)ləɹi/ (this pronunciation gives rise to the Cockney rhyming slang tomfoolery)
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒ(ʊ.)wɛl.(lə.)ri/
• Hyphenation: jew'el‧lery

jewellery (usually uncountable, plural jewelleries)

1. Collectively, personal ornamentation such as rings, necklaces, brooches and bracelets, made of precious metals and sometimes set with gemstones.

   Synonyms: bling, bling-bling, (Cockney rhyming slang) tom, (Cockney rhyming slang) tomfoolery

   She had more jewellery ornamented about her than any three ladies needed.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Fate of the Artemis”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     “ […] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned, and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck ; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]”

2. (oil industry, informal) Any tools, instruments, devices, etc., placed within a drill pipe.
   • 2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 44:

     The rig simply retrieves the old pipe and runs a new pipe back in the hole (the completion string). Any special items on the string other than the pipe itself are referred to as "jewellery". These can be any number of things, from down-hole motors to mandrels and radioactive sources for survey purposes.

3. The shop from which a jeweller trades or makes jewellery

• see also Thesaurus:jewelry