What does "nacre" mean?

A shellfish which contains mother-of-pearl.

What is a synonym for "nacre"?

Common synonyms include: antigorite, butterfly, candy cane, chameleon, cheetah, chrysotile.

//ˈneɪkə// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A shellfish which contains mother-of-pearl. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"The shell-fish called a Nacre, liveth even so with the Pinnotere, which is a little creature like unto a Crabfish[…]."
2
the iridescent internal layer of a mollusk shell wordnet
3
A pearly substance made mainly of stacked layers of aragonite and organic matter which lines the interior of many shells; mother-of-pearl. countable, uncountable
"On a little table of dark perfumed wood thickly encrusted with nacre, […]was lying a note from Lord Henry, and beside it was a book bound in yellow paper, the cover slightly torn and the edges soiled."

"The shell-fish called a Nacre, liveth even so with the Pinnotere, which is a little creature like unto a Crabfish[…]."

From Middle French nacre, from Medieval Latin nacchara, from Arabic نَقَّارَة (naqqāra). Doublet of nagara. Also present in nacarat.

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