mother-of-pearl

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.

• nacre

• mother of pearl (noun)

mother-of-pearl (not comparable)

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

• pearl

• “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.