Chatoyant
//ʃəˈtɔɪ.ənt// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A hard stone, such as the cat's-eye, which presents on a polished surface, and in the interior, an undulating or wavy light.
Adjective
- 1 Having a certain optical reflectance effect, which can be likened to the sheen of a spool of silk.
"chatoyant effect"
Adjective
- 1 varying in color when seen in different lights or from different angles wordnet
Example
More examples"I managed to move sufficiently to see at the top, as I fired up the stairs, the yellow face of Dr. Fu-Manchu, to see the gleaming, chatoyant eyes, greenly terrible, as they sought to pierce the gloom."
Etymology
From French chatoyant, present participle of chatoyer (“to iridesce, like a cat's eye”), from chat (“cat”, because of the reflective qualities of a cat's eye).
Related phrases
More for "chatoyant"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.