This post is in response to Heena Rathore P.’s Word of the Week (WOW). This weekly meme is a great way of improving your vocabulary. If you wish to participate, simply create a post with your word and leave a link in a comment on Heena’s WOW post.
Here’s my WOW for this week:
Word
iridescent
Part of Speech
Adjective
Noun – iridescence
Adverb – iridescently
Pronunciation
ir-i-des-cent (ĭr′ĭ-dĕs′ənt)
Meaning
1) Displaying a spectrum of colours that shimmer and change due to interference and scattering as the observer’s position changes.
2) Brilliant, lustrous, or colorful in effect or appearance.
Synonyms
1) chatoyant, changeable, shot
2) lustrous, opalescent, opaline, pearlescent, pearly, polychromatic, prismatic, nacreous, shimmering
Word Origin
The derivation of the word iridescent is partly from the Greek word îris (ἶρις) meaning ‘rainbow’, combined with the Latin suffix -escent, meaning ‘having a tendency toward’. The word iris in turn derives from the Greek goddess Iris, a messenger of the gods, who is the personification of the rainbow.
Use in a Sentence
1) The damselfly’s iridescent body shimmered as it flitted with deadly intent beside the stream.

2) Gleaming iridescently as the morning sunlight fell upon its surface, the abalone shell fascinated Martha’s grandchildren as it had their parents so many years earlier.

If you want to discover more great words then visit Heena’s page Word Treasure.
This is the first time I’ve actually managed to use one of my own pictures on a WOW post! As soon as I decided to do the word iridescent this week I just knew I’d have to include one of my damselfly pictures. I hope you like it – and the rest of the post as well, of course!
Nice Damselfly. The photo shows up its colours quite nicely 🙂
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Love the photo’s to describe the word!!
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Fantastic word! Haven’t heard it used for ages.
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Thank you! It’s one of my favourites. 🙂
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lovely lovely!! perfect images for the word!! PS give me some time to get to your ongoing story Louise I will!!! I’m trying to catch up on wordpress!
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Thank you. I’m glad you like it! And whenever you get to it is fine. 🙂 It sometimes takes me quite a while to get through everything I want to read on wordpress – I have so many things on the go that fitting everything in is tricky. 🙂
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Love this word…and the pictures were perfect!
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Thank you. 🙂
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Such a colorful and beautiful word, I must say! And the pictures are beautiful as well 😀
Thanks Louise!
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Thanks, Heena! I’m glad you like it. 🙂
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