Tortoiseshell

Definition: Tortoiseshell

Tortoiseshell

Noun

1. The mottled horny substance of the shell of some turtles.

2. Brilliantly colored; larvae feed on nettles.

3. A cat having black and cream and yellowish markings.

Date "tortoiseshell" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1856. (references)

Synonyms: Tortoiseshell

Synonyms: calico cat (n), tortoiseshell butterfly (n), tortoiseshell-cat (n). (additional references)

Synonyms by domain: calico Longhair (food & agriculture, medicine), small tortoiseshell (food & agriculture, biology & biotechnology), tortoiseshell-and-white Longhair (food & agriculture, medicine).

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Crosswords: Tortoiseshell

English words defined with "tortoiseshell": boule, boulle, buhl ♦ Eretmochelys imbricata ♦ hawkbill, hawksbill, hawksbill turtle ♦ tortoiseshell turtle. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Tortoiseshell

Domain	Title
Books	Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown and Black Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400 (reference) Melanesian Design: A Study of Style in Wood and Tortoiseshell Carving (reference) Tortoiseshell and the Pekingese (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Tortoiseshell

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Usage Frequency: Tortoiseshell

"Tortoiseshell" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 92.19% of the time. "Tortoiseshell" is used about 64 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	92.19%	59	44,010
Noun (proper)	6.25%	4	175,879
Lexical Verb (base form)	1.56%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	64	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Tortoiseshell

Expressions using "tortoiseshell": tortoiseshell butterfly ♦ tortoiseshell cat ♦ tortoiseshell Longhair ♦ tortoiseshell turtle. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "tortoiseshell": tortoiseshell-and-white, tortoiseshell-cat, tortoiseshell-framed, tortoiseshell-style.
	Ending with "tortoiseshell": mock-tortoiseshell.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Tortoiseshell

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
cat tortoiseshell	43
tortoiseshell	25
kitten tortoiseshell	4
calico tortoiseshell	3
faux tortoiseshell	2
cat picture tortoiseshell	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Tortoiseshell

Language		Translations for "tortoiseshell"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Arabic		‏فراشة (butterfly, moth, satyr), ‏عظم ظهر السلحفاة. (various references)

Hungarian		teknőckeretes szemüveg (tortoiseshell glasses). (various references)

Italian		tartaruga (tortoise, turtle). (various references)

Manx		foillican shligganagh (tortoiseshell butterfly), foillican breck (fritillary, tortoiseshell butterfly). (various references)

Pig Latin		ortoiseshelltay

Spanish		ortiguera, gato pardo, de carey (horn-rimmed), carey (shell, tortoise, tortoise shell). (various references)

Turkish		bağa. (various references)

Ukrainian		черепаха (tortoise, turtle), панцир черепахи. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Tortoiseshell

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	Aglais urticae, Vanessa urticae. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations: Tortoiseshell

Derivations
	Words beginning with "tortoiseshell": tortoiseshells. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Tortoiseshell

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-e-h-i-l-l-o-o-r-s-s-t-t"
	-3 letters: hostellers, hostelries, sitosterol.
	-4 letters: helotries, heterosis, hostelers, hosteller, hoteliers, isotheres, lithosols, lotteries, oestriols, rillettes, rototills, shelliest, shortlist, shrillest, sollerets, theorises, theorists, throstles, toothless, tortoises, trellises.
	-5 letters: estriols, heirless, heisters, helleris, hiltless, hoisters, holeless, holsters, hootiest, horsiest, hosteler, hostiles, hostlers, hotelier, isothere, leisters, lithosol, oestriol, oilholes, orthoses, orthosis, osteites, ostioles, otoliths, relishes, reshoots, retitles.
	Words containing the letters "e-e-h-i-l-l-o-o-r-s-s-t-t"
	+1 letter: tortoiseshells.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.