mother-of-pearl
/ˌmʌðəɹ əv ˈpɜː(ɹ)l/
mother-of-pearl noun: the hard pearly inner layer of certain mollusk shells; nacre.
Noun
mother-of-pearl (countable and uncountable, plural mother-of-pearls)
- The hard pearly inner layer of certain mollusk shells; nacre.
- Ah, those Indian warehouses made the morning pass in a charming manner! many a soft confession was whispered over a huge china jar; many a heart has succumbed to a suite of mother-of-pearl card-box and counters; and as to the shawls, why, the whole feminine world has long ago acknowledged them to...1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Another London Life”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 170
- A butterfly of the genus Salamis.
- A butterfly of the species Patania ruralis.
Adjective
mother-of-pearl (not comparable)
- Made from or looking like mother-of-pearl; iridescent or pearly.
mother-of-pearl meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
mother-of-pearl in Hindi
- pearly layer
- सदफ़ sadaf, सदफ sadaph
mother-of-pearl in Urdu
- pearly layer
- صَدَف sadaf
mother-of-pearl in Bengali
- pearly layer
- মৌক্তিক mōuktik
mother-of-pearl in Telugu
- pearly layer
- ముత్యపుచిప్ప mutyapucippa
More languagesFewer languages
- mother-of-pearl in Kannada
- ಮುತ್ತಿನ ಚಿಪ್ಪು, ಶುಕ್ತಿ, ಕಪ್ಪೆಚಿಪ್ಪು, ಮುತ್ತುಚಿಪ್ಪು
- mother-of-pearl in Gujarati
- સીપ sīp
- mother-of-pearl in Pashto
- صدف sadáf
- mother-of-pearl in Tagalog
- nakar, inamperlas, binga
- mother-of-pearl in Arabic
- عِرْق اللُّؤْلُؤ ʕirq al-luʔluʔ, زِلْف zilf, زَلَف zalaf, صَدَف ṣadaf
- mother-of-pearl in Indonesian
- indung mutiara, giwang
- mother-of-pearl in Vietnamese
- xà cừ
- mother-of-pearl in Myanmar
- မုတ်ခွံ muthkwam, ကနုကမာ ka.nu.ka.ma
Synonyms of mother-of-pearl
Forms of mother-of-pearl
| plural | mother-of-pearls |
|---|---|
| alternative form | mother of pearl |
Origin of mother-of-pearl
Calque of Latin māter perlārum, with the first element perhaps connected in popular imagination with obsolete mother (“dregs”). Possibly referring to the fact that the nacre-lined shells are the belly (“mother”) in which pearls are produced.
Phrases with mother-of-pearl
Questions about mother-of-pearl
- What does mother-of-pearl mean?
- Mother-of-pearl means the hard pearly inner layer of certain mollusk shells; nacre.
- What is mother-of-pearl in Hindi?
- Mother-of-pearl in Hindi is सदफ़ (sadaf), सदफ (sadaph). See Mother-of-pearl meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is mother-of-pearl?
- Mother-of-pearl can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce mother-of-pearl?
- Mother-of-pearl is pronounced /ˌmʌðəɹ əv ˈpɜː(ɹ)l/.
- What is the plural of mother-of-pearl?
- The plural of mother-of-pearl is mother-of-pearls.
Words near mother-of-pearl in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mother-of-pearl (page history and authors); mother-of-pearl (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); સીપ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-mother-of-pearl.wav.
Cite this entry: “mother-of-pearl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mother-of-pearl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.