abalone
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of abalone
1840–50, taken as singular of California Spanish abulones, plural of abulón, aulón < a word in Rumsen, a Costanoan language formerly spoken at Monterey, California
Explanation
An abalone is a mollusk found in warm seas. Abalones have an ear-shaped shell with a pearly interior. It hardly seems fair that this large mollusk is only one syllable away from being baloney, since the two words are unrelated. The pearly interior of the abalone — which yields mother-of-pearl — makes this animal quite a prize, since mother-of-pearl is used in many types of jewelry. The abalone is part of the genus Haliotis: because of its ear-shaped shell, it is also known as a sea ear or ear shell. Other mollusks include squid, clams, and octopuses.
Vocabulary lists containing abalone
English Words Derived from Indigenous Languages of the Americas
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Something's Fishy: A Fresh Catch of Aquatic Words
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Island of the Blue Dolphins
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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.
See Examples For:
Kim Namin, 29, runs a seasoned gim processing factory with a 30-year family history in Wando, an island in South Korea's southern waters known for abalone and seaweed production.
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2026
On special is an abalone soup, an alien beast in his time, and not our cup of tea, but they say Hemingway took a shine.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2025
According to Windsor police, the man admitted to excavating abalone from rocks along the Mendocino County coast near the town of Elk for personal consumption.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2025
The California coast was once home to the greatest number of abalone species in the world — black, white, red, green, pink, flat and pinto.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2025
He swam to the door and ran his fingers along the abalone.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
He recalled dishes considered delicacies such as donkey meat and abalones - a type of mollusc - being flown in from Pyongyang.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2023
“Chinese people like to eat these expensive foods like sea cucumbers and abalones at our Lunar New Year family gatherings because we have worked very hard over the past year,” Fong said.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 30, 2022
The traditional dish known as “poon choi,” or “basin food,” is a large dish filled with lotus root, radish, taro and more expensive delicacies such as prawns, abalones and meat layered on top.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 30, 2022
For centuries, fishermen have carved their homes into the bluffs, like bird’s nests, plucking abalones and sailing out for bamboo crabs.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2016
The abalones were not yet dry so I would have to leave them.
From "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell
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.
