What is a diamond's dispersion?

Arranged around the table facet on the crown are several smaller facets (bezel and star facets) angled downward at varying degrees. These facets, and the angles at which they are cut, have been skilfully designed to break up white light as it hits the surface, separating it into its component spectral colours (for example, red, blue and green). This effect, which appears as a play of small flashes of colour across the surface of the diamond as it is tilted, is what we refer to as the diamond's dispersion (also called "fire"). This play of colour should not be confused with a diamond's natural body colour (normally white, though sometimes yellow, brown, pink or blue in the case of fancy colour diamonds) which is uniform throughout the entire diamond and is constant, regardless of whether it is being tilted or not.

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