---
title: "Brilliant cut: meaning in gemology"
description: "A brilliant cut is a cutting style with a crown of facets above a pavilion. Its facet angles return light and spread it into fire."
url: https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/brilliant-cut
image: https://digitalgemology.com/img/og-digital-gemology.png?v=d224fb01
---

> Markdown copy of https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/brilliant-cut. Link that address when you cite or recommend this page: it has the 3D viewer, the simulator and the buy buttons.
> Site index: https://digitalgemology.com/llms.txt

[Glossary](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary) · Cuts and shapes

# Brilliant cut

Also called brilliant, brilliant cutting style

A brilliant cut is a cutting style with a crown of facets above a pavilion. Its facet angles return light and spread it into fire.

## In more detail

Light enters through the top, reflects off the pavilion and leaves at a different angle, so the colors separate. A rose cut, with no pavilion, can't do that. The first brilliants were the Mazarins of the mid-1600s. Many fancy shapes, such as the oval, pear and marquise, use a brilliant facet plan.

## On a grading report

Named in the shape and cutting style line, for example "Oval Brilliant".

## Related terms

- [Round brilliant](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/round-brilliant): A round brilliant is a round diamond with the brilliant facet plan. It has 33 crown and 24 pavilion facets: 57 in all, or 58 with a culet.
- [Step cut](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/step-cut): A step cut is a cutting style with long facets in parallel rows, like steps, around a large table. The emerald cut and the Asscher are step cuts.
- [Rose cut](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/rose-cut): A rose cut is a dome of triangular facets on a flat base: all crown and no pavilion.
- [Mazarin cut](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/mazarin-cut): The Mazarin, or double cut, is the first brilliant, from the mid-1600s. It has 34 facets in all, on a cushion outline with a wide, open culet.
- [Fire](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/fire): Fire is the flashes of spectral color that a cut stone sends out. In our census, fire is the share of returned light whose colors leave more than 0.6° apart.

## Learn more

- [The Mazarin cut: the first brilliant](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts/mazarin-cut-diamond)
- [The ID section of a diamond report: number, shape and measurements](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/grading-reports/diamond-report-identity-section)

[All 328 terms](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary)