Mother-of-pearl
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The hard pearly inner layer of certain mollusk shells; nacre. countable, uncountable
"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 be irresistible."
- 2 the iridescent internal layer of a mollusk shell wordnet
- 3 A butterfly of the genus Salamis. countable, uncountable
- 1 Made from or looking like mother-of-pearl; iridescent or pearly. not-comparable
Example
More examples"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 be irresistible."
Etymology
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.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.