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seashell

seashell

22 1.0
A hard curved cover left by a sea animal often found on beaches
  • noun
  • /ˈsiːˌʃɛl/
: concha
  • We walked on the beach, looking for seashells that washed ashore after the storm.

He's curious about everything, how everything works, how seashells form.

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Examples

  • From her dresser, she picked up a seashell and held it to her ear, closing her eyes.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • We invented games with seashells and pebbles and pieces of driftwood.

  • Listen: Place your ear to a seashell, or to this infamous prison phone, and listen.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • I'm making you another seashell necklace.

  • And I reached my hands out so he could touch the seashells I was holding.

  • Maybe sometime you and I can go find some seashells together.

  • We walked on the beach, looking for seashells and Cape Cod diamonds.

  • With its flat teeth, this Placodont mostly eats seashells and molluscs.

  • Her nails, overlong, pale as seashells, seem to lag behind her fingers.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Seen from the right angle, the city was a sequence of seashells, glistening abalone, and mother-of-pearl.

    Fiction book (1994)

Synonyms

oyster shell
vsseashell
6 2.9

A hard outer part of a sea animal that people use for decoration or to add calcium to soil

is a general beach finding not focused on commercial use
clamshell
vsseashell
1 4.6

A clam's two hard shells joined at one side that open and close

is the general word for any marine animal's beach covering not hinge specific
cockleshell
vsseashell
1 8.2

A hard ribbed outer part of a small sea animal often found on beaches

is the general term for any marine animal's beach finding
scallop shell
vsseashell
1 4.4

A fan-shaped shell with lines from the middle to the edge often used as a symbol

is a broad name for marine animals' common beach coverings

Surface Forms

seashell singular
seashells plural

Morphology

seashell = sea + shell (transparent) = sea + shell

The meaning is directly the result of combining 'sea' and 'shell' to denote a shell from the sea, which is obvious to learners.

Etymology

The word seashell is simply the two English words sea and shell, meaning a 'shell' from the 'sea'. So, a seashell is the hard outer part of a sea animal that you find on the beach.