---
title: "Fancy sapphire: meaning in gemology"
description: "A fancy sapphire is a sapphire of any color other than blue, such as yellow, orange, pink, purple or green."
url: https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/fancy-sapphire
image: https://digitalgemology.com/img/og-digital-gemology.png?v=d224fb01
---

> Markdown copy of https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/fancy-sapphire. 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) · Colored gemstones

# Fancy sapphire

Also called fancy-color sapphire

A fancy sapphire is a sapphire of any color other than blue, such as yellow, orange, pink, purple or green.

## In more detail

Red corundum is ruby, not a fancy sapphire. Discoveries in East Africa and Madagascar in the 1990s brought fancy sapphires wide recognition.

## On a grading report

Labs put the color before the word: for example, yellow sapphire or pink sapphire.

## Related terms

- [Sapphire](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/sapphire): Sapphire is corundum of any color other than red. The word alone means a blue stone; other colors take a color word, such as yellow sapphire.
- [Padparadscha](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/padparadscha): Padparadscha is a sapphire of soft pinkish orange to orangey pink. Its tones are pastel and its saturation low to medium.
- [Pink sapphire](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/pink-sapphire): Pink sapphire is corundum whose color is pink rather than red. Chromium causes both its pink and the red of ruby.
- [Color change](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/color-change): Color change is a visible change of a gem's main hue between daylight and incandescent light.
- [Corundum](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/corundum): Corundum is the mineral species made only of aluminum and oxygen. Its red variety is ruby, and all its other colors are sapphire.

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