Dentalium

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various tooth shells of the genus Dentalium.

    "Apart from the two or three bird masks, the only other zoomorphic mask was a wolf frontlet of cedar decorated in micaceous black paint with dentalium teeth, dentalium being an important form of wealth with some of the attributes of a currency."

Synonyms

All synonyms
ioqua

Example

More examples

"Apart from the two or three bird masks, the only other zoomorphic mask was a wolf frontlet of cedar decorated in micaceous black paint with dentalium teeth, dentalium being an important form of wealth with some of the attributes of a currency."

Etymology

Borrowed from translingual Dentalium, from Latin dentālis (“dental”), dēns (“tooth”), Proto-Italic *dents and Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts.

Related phrases

tooth shell

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