Getting started

Faux is not a disclosure

On this page11

The guide names one word in a note and rules on it Which is not a prohibition and it is worth being precise about that This library has now collected all three postures toward a word Prescribed words appear in four places across these properties A forbidden word appears once And this is the inadequate one The reason is readable from the word itself The acceptable words are listed and they are blunt Or some other word or phrase of like meaning keeps the list open None of which reaches anything in this group References

Nobody is forbidden to write it. Writing it simply does not discharge the duty.

The guide names one word in a note and rules on it

The use of the word faux to describe a laboratory-created or imitation stone is not an adequate disclosure that the stone is not a mined stone.

Which is not a prohibition and it is worth being precise about that

Nothing says faux may not be used. The note says it does not accomplish the disclosure the paragraph requires. A seller who writes faux and nothing else has not broken a word rule; they have failed a disclosure requirement.

This library has now collected all three postures toward a word

A rule can prescribe a word, forbid a word, or rule a word inadequate. The third is the subtle one and this is the only example of it here.

Prescribed words appear in four places across these properties

Used Oil, on a container and a fill pipe. Exclusive of decoration and exclusive of elastic, in the textile trimmings rule. No bleach and only non-chlorine bleach when needed, in the care labeling rule. And the lead paint warning, which is the longest.

A forbidden word appears once

The care labeling rule provides that the terms drycleanable and commercially dryclean may not be used in an instruction. Two specific phrases, banned outright.

And this is the inadequate one

Faux. A word that remains available and does nothing. Which is arguably the hardest of the three to draft, because it has to be identified specifically and then measured against a standard rather than simply listed.

The reason is readable from the word itself

Faux is a loan word that many readers will not parse as a disclaimer at all, and the paragraph requires a disclosure that discloses clearly the nature of the product. A word that half the audience reads as a style rather than a statement cannot do that.

The acceptable words are listed and they are blunt

Laboratory-grown. Laboratory-created. A manufacturer name followed by created. Imitation. Simulated. Or some other word or phrase of like meaning.

Or some other word or phrase of like meaning keeps the list open

Which is what stops the paragraph from being a closed vocabulary. The test is whether the phrase conveys the meaning, and faux is the worked example of one that does not.

None of which reaches anything in this group

Part 23 addresses how a seller describes a stone or a pearl. A jar is not a stone and nothing on these pages says the guides govern any container on this shelf.

References

16 CFR 23.25(b) and its notes. Paragraph (b) makes it unfair or deceptive to use the word "ruby," "sapphire," "emerald," "topaz," or the name of any other precious or semi-precious stone, or the word "stone," "birthstone," "gem," "gemstone," or similar term, to describe a laboratory-grown, laboratory-created, synthetic, imitation or simulated stone "unless such word or name is immediately preceded with equal conspicuousness by the word “laboratory-grown,” “laboratory-created,” “[manufacturer name]-created,” or some other word or phrase of like meaning, or by the word “imitation” or “simulated,” so as to disclose clearly the nature of the product and the fact it is not a mined gemstone." Note 1: "The use of the word “faux” to describe a laboratory-created or imitation stone is not an adequate disclosure that the stone is not a mined stone." law.cornell.edu

The six leaves in this group as the catalog indexes them: cabochon storage, crystal point, loose gemstone, pearl loose, seed bead storage and tumbled bead. 16 CFR part 23 addresses how a seller may describe a stone or a pearl and does not govern containers.

Written from 16 CFR part 23 and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. Part 23 contains the Federal Trade Commission guides for the jewelry, precious metals and pewter industries and addresses how a seller may describe a stone or a pearl; it does not govern containers, and it does not reach any row on this shelf. Nothing here states the identity, origin, grade, value or treatment of any stone, and nothing here is grading, appraisal or authentication guidance. The catalog records a container color, not an optical performance, and no page converts one into the other.