ambergris

WOTD – 3 April 2006    

English

Alternative forms

Alternative forms

ambergreace amber greace ambergrease ambergreece amber-greece amber greece

ambergreese amber-greese ambergrise ambragresia ambre-gris

Etymology

Old French ambre gris (“grey amber”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

ambergris (uncountable)

1. (uncountable) A solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish color, produced in the intestines of the sperm whale. It is used in perfumes.
   • 1851 — Herman Melville, Moby Dick

     And as for the other whale, why, I’ll agree to get more oil by chopping up and trying out these three masts of ours, than he’ll get from that bundle of bones; though, now that I think of it, it may contain something worth a good deal more than oil; yes, ambergris.

Translations

fatty substance

• Arabic: عنبر (ar) (ʿanbar) m
• Azeri: ənbər (az)
• Belarusian: амбра (be) (ámbra) f
• Bulgarian: амбра (bg) (ámbra) f
• Catalan: ambre gris (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 龍涎香 (cmn), 龙涎香 (cmn) (lóngxiánxiāng)

• Czech: ambra (cs) f
• Danish: ambra (da)
• Dutch: amber (nl)
• Esperanto: ambro (eo)
• Finnish: ambra (fi)
• French: ambre gris (fr) m
• German: Ambra (de) f, Amber (de) m
• Ido: ambro (io)
• Italian: ambra grigia (it) f
• Japanese: 竜涎香 (ja) (りゅうぜんこう, ryūzengō) (also spelled 龍涎香 (ja) (りゅうぜんこう, ryūzengō)), アンバーグリス (ja) (anbāgurisu)
• Korean: 용연향 (ko) (yong-yeonhyang) (龍涎香 (ko))

• Malayalam: ആംബർഗ്രീസ് (ml)
• Norwegian: ambra (no)
• Persian: عنبر (fa) ('anbar)
• Polish: ambra (pl) f
• Portuguese: âmbar cinza (pt) m, âmbar gris (pt) m, âmbar pardo (pt) m
• Romanian: ambră (ro) f
• Russian: амбра (ru) (ámbra) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: амбра (sh) f

  Roman: ambra (sh) f

• Slovene: ambra (sl) f
• Spanish: ámbar gris (es) m
• Swedish: ambra (sv)
• Telugu: అంబరు (te)
• Thai: อำพันขี้ปลา (th) (am-pan-khi-plar)
• Turkish: amber (tr)
• Ukrainian: амбра (uk) (ámbra) f
• Vietnamese: long diên hương (vi) (龍涎香 (vi))

Synonyms

• grey amber

External links

• Ambergris on Wikipedia.Wikipedia