scallop
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Any of different marine bivalve molluscs of the superfamily Pectinoidea.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
skaluhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈskæləp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Any of various marine bivalve molluscs of the superfamily Pectinoidea.
Edible marine bivalve having a fluted fan-shaped shell that swim by expelling water from the shell in a series of snapping motions
One of a series of curves, forming an edge similar to a scallop shell, especially in knitting and crochet.
One of a series of rounded projections (or the notches between them) formed by curves along an edge (as the edge of a leaf or piece of cloth or the margin of a shell or a shriveled red blood cell observed in a hypertonic solution etc.)
cooking
A fillet of meat, escalope.
Edible muscle of mollusks having fan-shaped shells; served broiled or poached or in salads or cream sauces
verb
transitive
To bake in a casserole (gratin), originally in a scallop shell; especially used in form scalloped
To create or form an edge in the shape of a crescent or multiple crescents.
Decorate an edge with scallops
“The dress had a scalloped skirt.”
Fish for scallops
Shape or cut in scallops
“Scallop the hem of the dress.”
intransitive
To harvest scallops
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any of various marine bivalve molluscs of the superfamily Pectinoidea.
Used this way, scallop is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Decorateverb
“The dress had a scalloped skirt.”
Shapeverb
“Scallop the hem of the dress.”
More ways to use scallop
- “The dress had a scalloped skirt.”verb
- “Scallop the hem of the dress.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A shell of a scallop.
Muscle of small choice shallow-water scallops.
A large scallop inhabiting deep waters of the Atlantic coast of North America.
Muscle of large deep-water scallops.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.