noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   the state of being opalescent countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the visual property of something having a milky brightness and a play of colors from the surface wordnet
3. 3
   the milky iridescent appearance of a dense transparent medium when it is illuminated by polychromatic visible radiation (such as sunlight) due to local fluctuations in its density and therefore in its refractive index countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

iridescencelight showlusternacrepearlinessrainbow

Etymology

From opal + -escence.

Related phrases

critical opalescencerefractive index

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