iridescence
/ˌɪɹ.ɪˈdɛs.əns/
iridescence means the condition or state of being iridescent; exhibition of colors like those of the rainbow; a prismatic play of color. It carries an Arena rating of 2082, earned across 34 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, iridescence ranks #47 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #566 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,094 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #1,629 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
iridescence is pronounced /ˌɪɹ.ɪˈdɛs.əns/.
Why “iridescence” is a great word
The play of colour in which a surface appears to shift through the hues of the spectrum as the observer or the light moves. From the Latin īrid-, stem of īris ("rainbow") + the suffix -escence (denoting a state or process), first recorded in English 1795–1805. Unlike opalescence, which suggests a soft, milky diffusion, or luminescence, which denotes light emitted from within, iridescence is colour borrowed and remade by geometry—a structural trickery without pigment. It is the slick of oil on a wet pavement, the impossible blues on a beetle's carapace, and the silent, chromatic sigh of a soap bubble just before it vanishes—the world's fleeting proof that beauty lies in the angle of regard.
noun
- The condition or state of being iridescent; exhibition of colors like those of the rainbow; a prismatic play of color.
- Any shimmer of glittering and changeable colors.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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