opal

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See also: Opal, opál, ópal, òpal, and opał

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Banded opal, a variety of opal (1)

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈəʊpəl/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈoʊpəl/
  • Rhymes: -əʊpəl

Noun

opal (plural opals)

  1. (mineralogy) A mineral consisting, like quartz, of silica, but inferior to quartz in hardness and specific gravity, of the chemical formula SiO2·nH2O.
    1. (gemology) A precious gem, an iridescent gemstone found in the opal-silica mineral substrate (potch)
    • 2012 March, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 June 2012, page 128:
      Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)
  2. (biology, genetics, biochemistry) A colloquial name used in molecular biology referring to a particular stop codon sequence, "UGA."
  3. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Nesolycaena.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

  • David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Opal”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
  • “opal”, in Mindat.org‎, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.
  1. ^ Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, Robert K. Barnhart (ed.), Chambers, 1988

Anagrams

Cebuano

Etymology

From English opal, from French opale, from Latin opalus, from Byzantine Greek ὀπάλλιος (opállios), from Sanskrit उपल (upala, “gem, stone”), from उपरि (upári, “the upper millstone”).

Pronunciation

  • Hyphenation: o‧pal

Noun

opal

  1. (mineralogy) opal

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Noun

opal m inan

  1. (mineralogy) opal
Declension
Declension of opal
singular plural
nominative opal opale
genitive opalu opali
dative opalowi opalom
accusative opal opale
instrumental opalem opalami
locative opalu opalach
vocative opalu opale
Derived terms
adjective

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

opal

  1. second-person singular imperative of opalić

Further reading

  • opal in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • opal in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Opal or Latin opalus or French opale.

Noun

opal n (plural opale)

  1. (mineralogy) opal

Declension

Declension of opal
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) opal opalul (niște) opale opalele
genitive/dative (unui) opal opalului (unor) opale opalelor
vocative opalule opalelor
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