opal

CEFRB2

/ˈəʊpəl/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A valuable stone that shows changing colors in light.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    The colour of opal: any shade of blue with bright flecks of other colours, such as white, yellow, and red.

Examples

  • An opal is a form of silicon.

  • Is that an opal in your ring?

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2

Also pronounced

  • /ˈoʊpəl/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A mineral consisting, like quartz, of silica, but inferior to quartz in hardness and specific gravity, of the chemical formula SiO₂·nH₂O.

  2. A precious gem, an iridescent gemstone found in the opal-silica mineral substrate (potch)

  3. A colloquial name used in molecular biology referring to a particular stop codon sequence, "UGA."

More examples

In context

  • The witchery of the dawn turned the grey river-reaches to purple, gold, and opal; and it was as though the lumbering dhoni crept across the splendors of a new heaven.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The jeweler examined the rainbow colors in the blank under the light.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

In Florio’s A World of Words 1598 as opale, from French opale, from Latin opalus, from Byzantine Greek ὀπάλλιος (opállios), from Sanskrit उपल (upala, “gem, stone”), from उपरि (upári, “the upper millstone”). Distantly related to over.