mother-of-pearl cloud
- noun
- /ˈmʌðər əv pɜrl klaʊd/
:
nube madreperla
- She captured a photograph of a mother-of-pearl cloud showing brilliant shades of pink and green above the horizon.
Examples
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A rare mother-of-pearl cloud lit up the northern skies with shimmering colors just after sunset.
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The mother-of-pearl clouds glowed softly at sunset.
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Scientists say mother-of-pearl clouds often form in extremely cold stratospheric conditions.
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Look at that beautiful mother-of-pearl cloud!
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A rare mother-of-pearl cloud lit up the northern skies with shimmering colors just after sunset.
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She captured a photograph of a mother-of-pearl cloud showing brilliant shades of pink and green above the horizon.
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Scientists say mother-of-pearl clouds often form in extremely cold stratospheric conditions.
Synonyms
A bright rainbow-coloured cloud high in the sky seen at twilight
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
mother-of-pearl + cloud
The compound is compositionally descriptive — it denotes a cloud that has the pearly, iridescent quality of mother-of-pearl, so if a learner knows the modifier 'mother-of-pearl' the meaning follows straightforwardly with 'cloud'. However, 'mother-of-pearl' itself is a lexicalized phrase whose sense (nacre/pearly iridescence) is not transparently derivable from the words 'mother' + 'pearl' for an average B1 learner, so understanding is only partially predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Mother-of-pearl cloud gets its name from the shiny inside of some shells called mother-of-pearl, which show soft rainbow colors. High, thin clouds can glow with the same pearly, changing colors when the sun is just below the horizon, so the phrase means a high cloud that looks 'bright' and 'pearly'.