Blue white (diamond term)
An old trade term for a diamond’s color, now limited by the FTC to stones that show no color other than blue or bluish.
How to read it
The FTC’s jewelry guides call it deceptive to describe as blue white any diamond that, in normal north daylight or its equivalent, shows any color other than blue or bluish. GIA lists blue white among the terms whose loose use caused misunderstanding and misrepresentation before its D-to-Z scale.
Also searched as: blue white diamond, blue-white diamond.
Grades describe a stone as a grading laboratory saw it. This page explains the grading scales; it doesn’t grade or value any stone.
Where the term came from
The older books show it as a sorting grade. Julius Wodiska’s 1909 book lists Blue White first among the shades sorters used, ahead of First Cape and Second Cape, and W. R. Cattelle wrote in 1911 that the public had been taught to regard blue-white stones as the finest of all.
Read next
- Next in Diamond gradingRound brilliant cutThe standard round diamond cut, with 57 or 58 facets.
- The same shape in ER diagram symbolsRelationshipA relationship: how two or more entities are related, such as a customer who places an order. In Chen notation it is a diamond with the relationship’s name inside, joined by lines to the entities it relates.
More diamond grading
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with diamonds or letters and numbers.
Sources
- Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries (16 CFR Part 23), 16 CFR Part 23 (1 January 2021 edition), Federal Trade Commission, published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office, § 23.15
- Diamond Color (GIA 4Cs), Gemological Institute of America
- The Diamond (Cattelle, 1911), W. R. Cattelle, The Diamond, John Lane Company, 1911, Internet Archive (scan), Chapter on color
- A Book of Precious Stones (Wodiska, 1909), Julius Wodiska, A Book of Precious Stones, 1909, Internet Archive (Cornell University Library scan), The Diamond
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 27, 2026. How we research
Added .