iridescence
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of iridescence
Explanation
Iridescence is a shiny, glowing quality. The bright, colorful surface of a soap bubble is beautiful because of its iridescence. Aside from the soapy bubbles you can blow and watch sailing away in the air, certain seashells and butterfly wings also have the property of iridescence. The iridescence of an oyster or abalone shell lining is called "mother of pearl," and a pearl is a gem that also has iridescence. This noun comes from the adjective iridescent, which originally meant "rainbow-colored," from the Latin root iris, "rainbow."
Vocabulary lists containing iridescence
Power Suffix: -escence
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Dark Water Rising
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The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The team found that sea silk's iridescence is created by a spherical protein structure known as "photonin."
From Science Daily ● Feb. 9, 2026
“For example, when you look at oyster shells, they have an iridescence of pearly green and blue, and that’s definitely from minerals like copper,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2024
Tentacular growths begin to invade the offshore structure, shimmering with oily iridescence against the rig’s dull, cold steel.
From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2024
Her eyes are turquoise and sparkly; her feathers a silky black with a sheen of iridescence, sometimes green, sometimes lavender depending on the light.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 21, 2024
The boulders show and seem to rise up and the ocean recedes leaving little pools, leaving wet weed and moss and sponge, iridescence and brown and blue and China red.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
