Skip to content

opalescence

noun

  1. Optical iridescence phenomena characteristic of the opal gemstone
L324739 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˌəʉpəˈlesəns/

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English opal Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁sḱeti Proto-Italic *-ēskō Latin -ēscō Latin -escensder. English -escence English opalescence From opal + -escence.

  1. the state of being opalescent
  2. the milky iridescent appearance of a dense transparent medium when it is illuminated by polychromatic visible radiation (such as sunlight) due to local fluctuations in its density and therefore in its refractive index