Words / N / General

nacreous

adjective/ˈneɪkriəs/

C2CEFR level
92/100Rarity: very rare
LiteraryRegister

Having the soft, shifting pearly lustre of mother-of-pearl.

Rare nacreous clouds hung over the fjord, their edges tinted in faint bands of rose and green.

Similar: pearly, opalescent, lustrous

Origin: From nacre 'mother-of-pearl', via French from Arabic naqqara.

Topic: light / sky in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

Get words like nacreous on your lock screen, a few a day, with review that makes them stick.

Download on the App Store Lexfall puts a new word on your home and lock screen through widgets, so you learn without opening an app. Free to download. After a free trial, a subscription unlocks every field. Built for iPhone, iOS 15.1 or later.
QR code that opens Lexfall on the App Store
On a computer?Scan with your iPhone camera.