ivory
Syllables: i·vo·ry/ˈaɪv(ə)ɹi/
ivory noun: the hard white form of dentin which forms the tusks of elephants, walruses and other animals.
Noun
ivory (countable and uncountable, plural ivories)
- The hard white form of dentin which forms the tusks of elephants, walruses and other animals.
- “Leave the ivory!” he cried. “Leave the ivory! Dead men have no use for ivory!” Some of the Manyuema started to lay down their loads, but this was altogether too much for the avaricious Arabs.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 145
- A creamy white color, the color of ivory.
- Something made from or resembling ivory.
- The teeth.
- Ye forgot some o' yer ivories, didn't ye, on th' grass?1865, Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas
- The keys of a piano; or, the white keys, as opposed to the black keys (ebonies).
- to tickle the ivories
- Tony had gone into the storage room and gotten two more standing lamps, one placed near the ebonies and ivories.2016, Peter Wendt, Nikki Magee, Lulu.com, page 52
- A white person.
- A die (object bearing numbers, thrown in games of chance).
- The triumphant Englishman did not give himself the trouble even to shake the dice; and, so sure was he of winning, that he threw the ivory on the table without looking.c. 1846, Alexandre Dumas (translated by William Barrow), The Three Musketeers
Adjective
ivory (not comparable)
- Made of ivory.
- Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
- Resembling or having the colour of ivory.
- The walls and ceiling of this drawing-room in Montague Square are painted ivory.1938, Interior Decoration To-day, page 132
Proper noun capitalized: Ivory
Ivory
- A surname from Old French.
- A male given name from English.
- A female given name from English.
- Charlie Parrott wasn't fooled and told Linny to walk softly. The girl's name had been picked from a baby-name book which reflected a brief fashion of naming girls for expensive wedding gifts of an earlier time—Linen, Silver, Crystal, Ivory.2004, Annie Proulx, Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2, HarperCollins UK, published 2010, →ISBN
ivory meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
ivory in Hindi
- material
- हाथीदांत hāthīdānt, हाथी दांत hāthī dānt, गजदन्त gajdant
ivory in Tamil
- தந்தம்
ivory in Marathi
- हस्तिदंत
ivory in Urdu
- material
- ہاتھی دانت hāthī dānt
More languagesFewer languages
- ivory in Bengali
- আইভরি, হাতির দাঁত, গজদন্ত, নাগদন্ত
- ivory in Malayalam
- ആനക്കൊമ്പ്
- ivory in Kannada
- ದಂತವರ್ಣ dantavarṇa
- ivory in Gujarati
- હાથીદાંત hāthīdā̃t
- ivory in Odia
- ହାତୀଦାନ୍ତ
- ivory in Sanskrit
- रजत rajatá
- ivory in Nepali
- हाथीदान्त
- ivory in Tagalog
- garing
- ivory in Arabic
- عَاج ʕāj, عَاجِيّ ʕājiyy, عَاجِيَّة ʕājiyya
- ivory in Malay
- gading
- ivory in Indonesian
- gading
- ivory in Persian
- عاج 'âj, پیلسته piloste
- ivory in Thai
- งาช้าง ngaa cháang, สีงาช้าง
- ivory in Vietnamese
- ngà voi, ngà
- ivory in Myanmar
- ဆင်စွယ် hcangcwai
Examples of ivory in a sentence
- Until the CITES sales ban, elephant tusks were the 'backbone' of the legal ivory trade.
- Such a proposal looks fine from an ivory tower, but it could never work in real life.
- People who smuggle artifacts, blood diamonds and ivory trinkets on the black market are unforgivable in my mind.
Synonyms of ivory
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of ivory
| plural | ivories |
|---|
Origin of ivory
From Middle English yvory, ivorie, from Anglo-Norman ivurie, from Latin eboreus (“in or of ivory”) adjective of ebur (“ivory”) (genitive eboris), from Demotic Egyptian yb (“ivory, Elephantine”) (compare Coptic ⲓⲏⲃ (iēb, “Elephantine”)), from Egyptian ꜣbw (“elephant, ivory, Elephantine”), from Proto-Afroasiatic *leb-. Displaced native Old English elpendbān (literally “elephant bone”).
The surname is habitational from Ivry in Normandy, and in some cases patronymic from a diminutive of Ivor. The modern given name is associated with ivory.
Words formed from ivory
- black ivory
- gate of ivory
- ivoride
- ivoried
- ivorine
- ivoriness
- ivorist
- ivoroid
- ivory-bill
- ivorybill
- ivory bush coral
- ivorylike
- ivory porcelain
- ivory-pounder
- ivorysmith
- ivory-thumper
- ivory tickler
- Ivoryton
- ivory tree
- ivorytype
- ivoryware
- pink ivory
- purple ivory
- red ivory
- sea ivory
- tickle the ivories
- tickle the ivory
- vegetable ivory tree
- ivory-billed woodpecker
- ivory black
- Ivory Coast
- ivory gull
- ivory nut
- ivory-nut palm
- ivory palm
- ivory shell
- ivory tower
- ivory-white
- vegetable ivory
Phrases with ivory
- ivory nuts
- ivory gulls
- ivory palms
- ivory trees
- ivory towers
- Ivory Coaster
- gates of ivory
- Ivory Coasters
- Ivory Coastian
- ivory porcelains
- tickled the ivory
- tickles the ivory
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about ivory
- What does ivory mean?
- Ivory means the hard white form of dentin which forms the tusks of elephants, walruses and other animals.
- What is ivory in Hindi?
- Ivory in Hindi is हाथीदांत (hāthīdānt), हाथी दांत (hāthī dānt), गजदन्त (gajdant). See Ivory meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ivory?
- Ivory can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ivory?
- Ivory is pronounced /ˈaɪv(ə)ɹi/.
- What is the plural of ivory?
- The plural of ivory is ivories.
Words near ivory in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ivory (page history and authors); Ivory (page history and authors); ivory (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ivory (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivory (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ivory (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ದಂತವರ್ಣ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ivory (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); रजत (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); ivory (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ivory.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ivory.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ivory. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.