Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Exhibiting a milky iridescence like that of an opal.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having variegated and changing colors like those of the opal.
- Milky.
Wiktionary
- adj. Exhibiting a milky iridescence like that of an opal.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Reflecting a milky or pearly light from the interior; having an opaline play of colors.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having a play of lustrous rainbow colors
Etymologies
- From opal + -escent. First attested in 1813. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Oh – the purple blue opalescent is my fav, followed by the blue-red.”
“To the observer of the aura the term "opalescent" instinctly presents itself, for there is a striking resemblance to the opaline peculiar play of colors of delicate tints and shades in a body of pearly or milky hue.”
“Mountains of fresh cucumbers, radishes, and green onions, whole heads of romaine, and delicate, opalescent peeled white onions.”
“And what a vision it was; the newspaper describes the sweet treat thus: "The bean, of red and gold, has an opalescent beauty, like some piece of ancient amber.”
The Huffington Post: April Daniels Hussar: The 10 Craziest Moments of Royal Wedding Frenzy Yet
“And where is the miraculous, opalescent thing of beauty headed next?”
The Huffington Post: April Daniels Hussar: The 10 Craziest Moments of Royal Wedding Frenzy Yet
“The core is white, white, and a flicker of blue, opalescent, unimaginable -”
“Built using curved douglas fir plywood and tubular steel, everything is delicately illuminated by an opalescent storage wall and luminous bricks.”
“An arrangement of peacock feather tips decorated the top of the canopy, and white feather trimming cascaded down each of the columns into a pool of opalescent and white round glass ornaments resembling oversized pearls.”
“I sleep at last, wrapped in his arms, and dream of pearls falling one by one through the narrow neck of an hourglass, winding around its bottom like an opalescent ribbon that will shortly reach its end.”
Simon & Schuster: Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
“Then she appears, and it's hard to imagine this small, opalescent woman in a pink tunic, black slip over black leggings and tiny black”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘opalescent’.
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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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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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NTDW2
yawp, amidships, smug, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, whit, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
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of Montreal
Every time I finally decipher Kevin Barnes's song lyrics, I feel somewhat smarter.
These are strange/big/obscure words and phrases from the lyrics of the band 'of Montreal' (intentiona...southern hemisphe..., paradigm, Phaidon Press, permutation, List Christie, Gemini Tactics, eluardian, persecution complex, Himmlers, parabola, Mono Club, subconscious mass... and 132 more...
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Proustian -escent words
Proust (or Montcleiff) had a proclivity for the rhythm and tone of this sort of word. Help build the collection if you can.
Also, Transvertebration; can anyone define it? It's more o...senescent, opalescent, arborescent, efflorescent, deliquescent, effervescent, recrudescent, iridescent, somnolescent, convalescent, incandescent
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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... -
Words with a P in them
opalescent, apposite, kelp, culprit, corporeal, copper, impinge, impose, impetus, impassible, oppress, maple and 40 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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color, light & sight
albedo, chromatography, chromatic, tone, penumbra, superluminal, diaphanous, iridescent, amethyst, opalescent, celadon, lapis and 38 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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Pretty Words
Words that sound pretty.
ethereal, ephemeral, iridescent, shimmer, wisp, whisper, charisma, crescent, azure, mystery, fantasy, miracle and 142 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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Flutter
tuberose, golden apple, apple cider, unicorn, extraordinary, Pleiades, Merope, speckle, glitter, rose, pitter-pat, whale and 314 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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mum
cellophane, translucent, opalescent, sparkling, shimmering, quintessential, caliope
Tweets
Looking for tweets for opalescent.
knitandpurl "It brightened; the sky turned to a glowing pink which I strove, glueing my eyes to the window, to see more clearly, for I felt that it was related somehow to the most intimate life of Nature, but, the course of the line altering, the train turned, the morning scene gave place in the frame of the window to a nocturnal village, its roofs still blue with moonlight, its pond encrusted with the opalescent sheen of night, beneath a firmament still spangled with all its stars, and I was lamenting the loss of my strip of pink sky when I caught sight of it anew, but red this time, in the opposite window which it left at a second bend in the line; so that I spent my time running from one window to the other to reassemble, to collect on a single canvas the intermittent, antipodean fragments of my fine, scarlet, ever-changing morning, and to obtain a comprehensive view and a continuous picture of it."
-- Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D.J. Enright, p 317 of the Modern Library paperback edition Apr 26, 2008