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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tortoiseshell.

The horny, translucent, mottled covering of the carapace of the hawksbill turtle, used as a veneer etc.

13 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɔː(ɹ)təˌʃɛl//ˈtɔː(ɹ)təsˌʃɛl/
  1. The horny, translucent, mottled covering of the carapace of the hawksbill turtle, used as a veneer etc.

    uncountable · usually
  2. The hawksbill turtle.

    uncountable · usually
  3. A domestic cat (or a rabbit, guinea-pig, etc.) whose fur has black, brown and yellow markings.

    uncountable · usually
  4. Any of several butterflies, mostly of the genera Nymphalis and Aglais that have similar markings.

    uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From tortoise + shell.

adj/ˈtɔː(ɹ)təˌʃɛl//ˈtɔː(ɹ)təsˌʃɛl/
  1. Made of the covering of carapace of hawksbill turtle.

    not-comparable
  2. Having markings resembling covering of carapace of hawksbill turtle.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From tortoise + shell.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.