ivory
Plural: ivories
Noun
- A hard, white substance from elephant tusks or similar sources.
- a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses
- a shade of white the color of bleached bones
- The hard white form of dentin which forms the tusks of elephants, walruses and other animals.
- A creamy white color, the color of ivory.
- Something made from or resembling ivory.
- The teeth.
- The keys of a piano; or, the white keys, as opposed to the black keys (ebonies).
- A white person.
- A die (object bearing numbers, thrown in games of chance).
Adj
- Made of ivory.
- Resembling or having the colour of ivory.
Examples
- He played IVORY, hoping for a smooth and elegant scoring opportunity.
- to tickle the ivories
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English yvory, ivorie, from Anglo-Norman ivurie, from Latin eboreus (“in or of ivory”) adjective of ebur (“ivory”) (genitive eboris), from Demotic yb (“ivory, Elephantine”) (compare Coptic ⲓⲏⲃ (iēb, “Elephantine”)), from Egyptian ꜣbw (“elephant, ivory, Elephantine”), from Proto-Afroasiatic *leb-. Displaced native Old English elpendbān (literally “elephant bone”).
Synonyms
bone, off-white, pearl, tusk, Angrez, Caucasian, Pakeha, Yankee, ang moh, balanda, bule, béké, cracker, cumskin, farang, firangi, gora, gringo, gussuk, gweilo, haole, honky, hoogie, hoojah, ice monkey, ivory, joganosh, kabloona, laowai, leucoderm, mayo, mayonnaise face, melanin-challenged, migaloo, mlungu, mzungu, ofay, oyinbo, paddy, paleface, pigskin, pinky, roundeye, saltine, snow bunny, toubab, umlungu, vazaha, white, white bread, white devil, white man, whiteface, whitey, wigger, wonderbread
Scrabble Score: 11
ivory: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordivory: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
ivory: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary