mother-of-pearl

English

Mother-of-pearl.

Noun

mother-of-pearl (countable and uncountable, plural mother-of-pearls)

1. The hard pearly inner layer of certain mollusk shells; nacre.
2. A butterfly of the genus Salamis.

Synonyms

• nacre

Related terms

• mother of pearl (noun)

Translations

pearly layer

• Albanian: sedef (sq) m
• Arabic: عِرْق اللُّؤْلُؤ m (ʕirq al-luʔluʔ), صَدَف m (ṣadaf), أُمّ اللَّآلِئ f (ʔumm al-laʔāliʔ)
• Armenian: սադափ (hy) (sadapʻ)
• Azerbaijani: sədəf
• Bashkir: мәрүәт (mərwət)
• Belarusian: перламу́тр m (pjerlamútr), пэрляму́тар m (perljamútar)
• Bengali: মৌক্তিক (mōuktik)
• Bulgarian: седе́ф m (sedéf)
• Burmese: မုတ်ခွံ (my) (muthkwam), ကနုကမာ (my) (ka.nu.ka.ma)
• Buryat: эржэн (eržen), тана (tana)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 珍珠母 (zhēnzhūmǔ), 珧 (zh) (yáo)

• Czech: perleť f
• Danish: perlemor (da) n
• Dutch: parelmoer (nl) n
• Estonian: pärlmutter
• Finnish: helmiäinen (fi)
• French: nacre (fr) f
• Georgian: სადაფი (sadapi)
• German: Perlmutter (de) f or n, Perlmutt (de) n
• Greek: φίλντισι (el) n (fílntisi)

  Ancient: πινάριον n (pinárion)

• Hebrew: דַּר (he) m (dar)
• Hindi: सीप (hi) m (sīp)
• Hungarian: gyöngyház (hu)
• Icelandic: perlumóðir f
• Italian: madreperla (it) f
• Japanese: 真珠層 (しんじゅそう, shinjusō), 真珠母 (しんじゅぼ, shinjubo)
• Kalmyk: тан (tan)
• Kazakh: седеп (sedep), тана (tana)
• Korean: 진주층 (jinjucheung), 진주모 (jinjumo)
• Kyrgyz: седеп (ky) (sedep)
• Latvian: perlamutrs m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lithuanian: perlamutras m
• Macedonian: седеф m (sedef)
• Mongolian: тана (mn) (tana)
• Navajo: diichiłí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: perlemor (no) m or n

  Nynorsk: perlemor n

• Pashto: صدف (ps) m (sadáf)
• Persian: صدف (fa) (sadaf)
• Polish: masa perłowa (pl) f, macica perłowa (pl) f
• Portuguese: madrepérola f, nácar (pt) m
• Romanian: sidef (ro) n
• Russian: перламу́тр (ru) m (perlamútr)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сѐдеф m

  Roman: sèdef (sh) m

• Slovak: perleť f
• Slovene: sedef m
• Spanish: nácar (es) m
• Swedish: pärlemor (sv) c
• Tagalog: nakar, inamperlas, binga
• Tajik: садаф (sadaf)
• Tatar: пәрәмәч (tt) (pärämäç)
• Telugu: ముత్యపుచిప్ప (mutyapucippa)
• Turkish: sedef (tr)
• Turkmen: sadap
• Ukrainian: перламу́тр m (perlamútr)
• Urdu: سیپ m (sīp), صدف (sadaf)
• Uyghur: سەدەپ (sedep)
• Uzbek: sadaf (uz)
• Vietnamese: xà cừ (vi)
• Welsh: nacr m, cregynwisg f
• Yiddish: פּערל־מוטער (perl-muter)

butterfly

• Finnish: satraappi (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Adjective

mother-of-pearl (not comparable)

1. Made from or looking like mother-of-pearl; iridescent or pearly.

See also

• pearl

References

• “mother-of-pearl”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “mother-of-pearl”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "mother-of-pearl" in On-line Medical Dictionary, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1997–2005.
• "mother-of-pearl" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.