pearl

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Suddenly the idea came, the pearl is as large as

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Definitions (61)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (10)

  1. noun A smooth, lustrous, variously colored deposit, chiefly calcium carbonate, formed around a grain of sand or other foreign matter in the shells of certain mollusks and valued as a gem.
  2. noun Mother-of-pearl; nacre.
  3. noun One that is highly regarded for its beauty or value.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (42)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Words tagged pearl

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This word has been looked up 150 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

diamond ·  bead ·  ruby ·  gold ·  ivory ·  necklace ·  silk ·  feather ·  jewelry ·  ornament ·  sapphire ·  crystal

Used in the same contextWord Family

pearl:   pearls
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English perle, from Old French, from Latin *pernula, diminutive of perna, ham, seashell (from the shape of the shell).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English perle (the alleged Anglo-Saxon *pearl, *pærl, rests on a dubious gloss “enula, pærl,” where enula is uncertain); = Dutch parel, paarl, peerle = Middle Low German parle, perle, perlīn = Old High German perula, perala, perla, berala, berla, Middle High German berle, German perle = Icelandic perla = Swedish perla = Danish perle; = Old French perle, pelle, French perle = Provencal Spanish perla = Portuguese perola, perla = Italian perla; from early Middle Latin perula, perulus, perla, a pearl, prob. variant of pirula, a little pear, dim, of Latin pirum, a pear: see pear. Cf. Spanish perilla, a little pear, a pear-shaped ornament, Old Italian perolo, a little button or tassel (Florio). Cf. purl.
  2. from pearl, n. Cf. purl, v.
 

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/pərl/
by American Heritage

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