Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Producing a display of lustrous, rainbowlike colors: an iridescent oil slick; iridescent plumage.
- adj. Brilliant, lustrous, or colorful in effect or appearance: "The prelude was as iridescent as a prism in a morning room” ( Carson McCullers).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Exhibiting or giving out colors like those of the rainbow; gleaming or shimmering with rainbow colors; more generally, glittering with different colors which change according to the light in which they are viewed, without reference to what the colors are; lustrously versicolor; of changeable metallic sheen, as certain birds, insects, minerals, glass, fabrics, etc.
Wiktionary
- adj. not comparable Producing a display of lustrous, rainbow-like colors; prismatic.
- adj. Brilliant, lustrous, or colorful.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having colors like the rainbow; exhibiting a play of changeable colors; nacreous; prismatic. See iridescence.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. varying in color when seen in different lights or from different angles
- adj. having a play of lustrous rainbow colors
Etymologies
- Coined around 1800, from Latin iris ("rainbow") + -escent. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Also called iridescent shark catfish, Pangasius thrives in Vietnam's Mekong River.”
“In denominations of 50, 100, 200 and 500 pesos, they look similar to existing bills but incorporate additional security measures such as iridescent bands and optically variable ink which appears to change color, depending on the angle from which it is viewed.”
“September 24, 2009 at 4:39 pm sorry…i forgot to respond the first time…it’s called the iridescent butterfly top, and will be available in november only via wholesale…so you can visit your local boutique that carries fp, or nordstrom, or bloomingdales!”
“The word "iridescent" for "having or showing shifting changes in color or an interplay of rainbowlike colors" comes from this root.”
“A few French words are thrown in as well as harder words such as iridescent, azure, automatic, and glamorous.”
“Belatedly, I was informed that if you have an iridescent or otherwise metallic background, you need to cut the capping glass larger.”
“Some of them have iridescent glass as a background, which does weird things to the glass on top of it.”
“Â This 13-foot flightless bird is covered with beautiful iridescent feathers, which required a new approach to hair technology.”
24 Fun Facts about Disney/Pixar’s UP! | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News
“One is iridescent purple, traded I can't remember for what, with my friend Paul Chiten , a Los Angeles rock musician.”
“Striking black and white; brightest blue and red; creamy yellow, iridescent green.”
The Guardian: Are butterflies the UK's most beautiful endangered species? | Dan Flenley
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘iridescent’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 2)
fable, sprite, syphilitic, anvil, wonderstruck, vertigo, bridled, tufted, fettered, savvy, tweed fedora, tryst and 255 more...
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Adjectives
sagacious, average, angry, mad, crazy, giant, ugly, pretty, happy, sad, lonely, solitary and 119 more...
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Interesting
iridescent, luminescent, gossamer, blithe, illusory, halo, cygnet, covet, bloody, iris, pruinose, limerence and 15 more...
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bling
( open list, visual, light, descriptive )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/dynamic
even more:
sparkle, shine, gleam, glisten, shimmer, gloss, pearly, opalescent, iridescent, prismatic, multifaceted, glow and 35 more... -
Colors/Patterns/Prints/Textures
fritillary, chartreuse, tortoise-shell, brindle, burnt orange, cerulean, amaranth, sandy, amber, mold, fungus, kiwi and 65 more...
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My Favorite Words
As the title suggests...
erudite, draconian, ribald, caveat, onerous, drivel, defenestration, serendipitous, cogent, fastidious, ether, iridescent and 2 more...
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color, light & sight
albedo, chromatography, chromatic, tone, penumbra, superluminal, diaphanous, iridescent, amethyst, opalescent, celadon, lapis and 38 more...
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Multi-Coloured
prismatic, iridescent, psychedelic, polychromatic, hue, shades, blush, patches, wash, undertone, tint, complexion and 5 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Vocab_TC60Q_txtbook
most vocab in the textbook Page till end chapter 2.
moribund, unflagging, defunct, sated, inveigling, opining, needling, fulminating, lauding, vassals, serfs, minions and 86 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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Words of Beauty
the images
iridescent, void, vacuum, rapture, chaos, melancholy, somnambulant, ethereal, somnolescent, caress, intimate, mellifluous and 13 more...
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Wicked Cool Words
These words have been posted on my vocabulary tumblr, wickedcoolwords.tumblr.com!
miasma, libation, laconic, denigrating, deontic, accinge, liquescent, quagmire, exiguous, dirigible, lambasted, lambaste and 89 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for iridescent.
eyebee This word is sometimes misspelled with a double 'r' Jun 5, 2009
knitandpurl "The blinds were closed almost everywhere round the studio, which was fairly cool and, except in one place where daylight laid against the wall its brilliant but fleeting decoration, dark; one small rectangular window alone was open, embowered in honeysuckle and giving onto an avenue beyond a strip of garden; so that the atmosphere of the greater part of the studio was dusky, transparent and compact in its mass, but liquid and sparkling at the edges where the sunlight encased it, like a lump of rock crystal of which one surface, already cut and polished, gleams here and there like a mirror with iridescent rays."
-- Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D.J. Enright, p 565 of the Modern Library paperback edition May 7, 2008