the hard white substance, a variety of dentin, composing the main part of the tusks of elephants, walruses, etc.
this substance when taken from a dead animal and used to make carvings, billiard balls, etc.
some substance resembling this.
an article made of this substance, as a carving or a billiard ball.
a tusk, as of an elephant.
dentin of any kind.
Slang. a tooth, or the teeth.
Slang. ivories,
the keys of a piano or of a similar keyboard instrument.
dice.
Also called vegetable ivory. the hard endosperm of the ivory nut, used for ornamental purposes, for buttons, etc.
a creamy or yellowish white.
a smooth paper finish produced by coating with beeswax before calendering.
consisting or made of ivory.
of the color ivory.
a hard smooth creamy white variety of dentine that makes up a major part of the tusks of elephants, walruses, and similar animals
( as modifier )
ivory ornaments
a tusk made of ivory
a yellowish-white colour; cream
( as adjective )
ivory shoes
a substance resembling elephant tusk
an ornament, etc, made of ivory
obsolete Black slaves collectively
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French ivurie, from Latin eboreus, noun use of neuter adjective, equivalent to ebor- (stem of ebur ) “ivory” + -eus adjective suffix; compare Egyptian ab, abu, Coptic eb, ebu “ivory, elephant,” Sanskrit íbhaḥ “elephant”; see -eous
Ivory is a hard, white substance found in the tusks of animals such as elephants. Ivory also refers to a white-ish color, like the ivory keys on a piano. One of the most prized animal products is ivory, which comes from the tusks of elephants and walruses. Ivory — which is extremely hard dentine — is used in many objects, especially expensive, decorative ones such as statues. Unfortunately, the elephant population is endangered due to hunting elephants for their ivory, so this pretty substance comes at a high price. Ivory is also the name of a color that is close to the shade of bleached bones or pearl.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Despite their evolutionary distance, the team discovered that both butterflies and moths repeatedly relied on the same two genes, ivory and optix, to produce nearly identical warning colors.
From Science Daily • May 4, 2026
Some of those eagerly sought to enlighten their charges, while a few others grew to see – or claimed to see – an unbridgeable chasm between the ivory tower and mass cultural aspiration.
From Salon • Apr. 19, 2026
The florist-by-trade gestures behind her to hundreds of flowers contained in buckets — blue thistles, ivory anemones and calla lilies painted silver — all twisted and unfurling into the air.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 2, 2026
“I use these examples to show my team that we can’t be ivory tower operators.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 2, 2026
The earliest of these found so far are small figures of mammoth ivory from a cave in southwestern Germany, made 30,000 years ago.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
Definitions 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.
