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Glite Dictionary
🏆 Most valuable asset 💎 A royal gem
crown jewel

crown jewel

1 5.7
A very valuable jewel that a king or queen keeps for ceremonies
  • noun
translation icon : joya de la corona

Examples

  • The crown jewels, Michael, you'll love them.

    The Prisoner of Zenda (1979)

  • The three-craft February 2002 event is the collaboration's crown jewel.

    Academic text (2006)

  • You steal the crown jewel of a man's soul... ...and your only excuse is some candy-ass Hallmark card sentiment?

    A Perfect Murder (1998)

  • The Department of Addiction and Rehabilitation Studies at East Carolina University (the crown jewel of the State of East Carolina's educational system) wants to find out.

    Blog text (19)

  • The crown jewel of the royal collection is a magnificent diamond set in the queen's tiara.

  • During the ceremony, they unveiled the crown jewel, a rare emerald that has been in the family for generations.

  • The museum's latest exhibition features the crown jewel of its artifacts, a stunning ruby crown once worn by the king.

Synonyms

stone
vscrown jewel
75 4.5

A hard, shiny gem cut and polished for jewelry

is more narrowly the gem used in royal ceremonial regalia
gemstone
vscrown jewel
15 3.3

A hard, shiny stone cut and polished for use in jewelry

is used specifically as part of royal ceremonial regalia
precious stone
vscrown jewel
6 3.4

A rare valuable gem like a diamond used in jewelry

is specifically part of a monarch's ceremonial regalia
jewel in the crown
vscrown jewel
  • Informal
2 4.9

The most valuable or important part of a group

is a literal royal ceremonial object rather than a figurative praise

How Valuable

crown jewel
1 5.7
jewel
157 1.8
jewelry
  • US
494 1.3
trinket
43 3.5

Surface Forms

crown jewel singular
crown jewels plural

Morphology

crown + jewel

The sense 'most valued or prized asset' can be largely inferred from combining 'crown' (top/royal, indicating prominence) with 'jewel' (a precious, highly valued object), so learners who know both words can often guess the general meaning. However, the business/organizational usage is a metaphorical extension rather than a literal composition, so the exact nuance and idiomatic collocational use may not be fully predictable without exposure.

Etymology

Crown jewel comes from real royal crowns, where the bright jewel set in a crown was one of the most precious items worn by a king or queen at special ceremonies, so the phrase means a very valuable stone in the royal collection.