Abalone

//æb.əˈləʊ.ni// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An edible univalve mollusc of the genus Haliotis, having a shell lined with mother-of-pearl. Australia, Canada, Hong-Kong, Singapore, US, uncountable, usually

    "After he had brought it close to the canoe, he looked down and saw that it was a great live abalone caught in the flesh. Its color shone out of the water. As it ascended it was so big that all the canoes seemed to come inside of it, and it shone in every one's face"

  2. 2
    any of various large edible marine gastropods of the genus Haliotis having an ear-shaped shell with pearly interior wordnet
  3. 3
    The meat of the aforementioned mollusc. Australia, Canada, Hong-Kong, Singapore, US, uncountable, usually

Synonyms

All synonyms
ear shellear shellear-shellormerpauapawa

Example

More examples

"Abalone once supported important commercial and recreational fisheries in California, but the impacts of overfishing and disease have prompted the listing of two species of abalone, white and black, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act."

Etymology

From American Spanish abulón, from an indigenous language of the Monterey Bay area such as Rumsen/Southern Ohlone aūlun (“red abalone”)

Related phrases

Australian abaloneChilean abaloneass's ear abaloneass's-ear abaloneblack abaloneblacklip abablonegreen abalonenorthern abalonepink abablonepinto abalonerainbow abalonered abalone

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.