Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
name
A unisex given name from English.
A female given name from English.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A unisex given name from English.
A male given name from English.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, rare, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A surname from English.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A placename:
A major river in Guangdong, China; in full, the Pearl River.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A placename:
Short for Pearl River (Etymology 2): a river in Mississippi and Louisiana, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico,
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A placename:
Ellipsis of Pearl Harbor: a harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, United States, in the Pacific Ocean.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A shelly concretion, usually rounded, and having a brilliant luster, with varying tints, found in the mantle, or between the mantle and shell, of certain bivalve mollusks, especially in the pearl oysters and river mussels, and sometimes in certain univalves. It is usually due to a secretion of shelly substance around some irritating foreign particle. Its substance is the same as nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Round lustrous pearls are used in jewellery.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, literally, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A shelly concretion, usually rounded, and having a brilliant luster, with varying tints, found in the mantle, or between the mantle and shell, of certain bivalve mollusks, especially in the pearl oysters and river mussels, and sometimes in certain univalves. It is usually due to a secretion of shelly substance around some irritating foreign particle. Its substance is the same as nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Round lustrous pearls are used in jewellery.
Nacre; mother-of-pearl.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, literally, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Something precious.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, figuratively, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A capsule of gelatin or similar substance containing liquid for, e.g., medicinal application.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A whitish speck or film on the eye.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A fish allied to the turbot; the brill.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A light-colored tern.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
One of the circle of tubercles which form the bur on a deer's antler.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A fringe or border.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A valuable little nugget of information; especially, an aphorism or tip that is operationally useful for decision-making.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, figuratively, uncountable
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The clitoris.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, euphemistic, figuratively, slang, uncountable, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Ellipsis of pearl tapioca.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Argent, in blazoning by precious stones.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: government, heraldry, hobbies, lifestyle, monarchy, nobility, politics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The size of type between diamond and agate, standardized as 5-point.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, uncountable
Topics: media, printing, publishing, typography
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A jewel or gem.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To set or adorn with pearls, or with mother-of-pearl.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, sometimes, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cause to resemble pearls in shape; to make into small round grains.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cause to resemble pearls in lustre or iridescence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To resemble pearl or pearls.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To bead; to form droplets.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To hunt for pearls
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To sink the nose of one's surfboard into the water, often on takeoff.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports, surfing
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Of the nose of the surfboard: to sink in this manner.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports, surfing
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Of aquatic plants: to produce visible bubbles on the stems and leaves during photosynthesis, usually in a simulated environment like an aquarium.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Topics: biology, botany, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To use an ender pearl to teleport by throwing it.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a shade of white the color of bleached bones
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bone, ivory, off-white
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: white, whiteness
noun
a smooth lustrous round structure inside the shell of a clam or oyster; much valued as a jewel
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: jewel, gem, precious stone
Narrower terms: seed pearl
noun
a shape that is spherical and small
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: drop, bead
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sphere
Narrower terms: dewdrop, teardrop
verb
gather pearls, from oysters in the ocean
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: gather, garner, collect, pull together
History
From pearl. * (river in China): From Chinese 珠江 (Zhūjiāng, Zyu1 Gong1, “Pearl River”); calque of Chinese 珠 (zhū, zyu1, “pearl”). * (haven in Hawaii): From Hawaiian Wai Momi (“pearl water”); calque of Hawaiian momi (“pearl”).
Inherited from Middle English perle, from Old French perle of uncertain etymology. Probably via unattested Medieval Latin *pernula, from Latin perna (“haunch; a marine bivalve shaped like a leg of lamb”) but also derived from Medieval Latin perla, from Latin perula (“little bag”). Its typographic use follows the name given by Jean Jannon to the type used in his miniature editions of Vergil, Horace, & the New Testament in the 1620s, which were the smallest printed works to his time. Its surfing use derives from the supposed resemblance to pearl diving.
Across languages
254 source translations are retained for this English entry.
