Meaning & use

oyster

noun·Everyday

A soft-bodied shellfish with a hinged shell that lives in the sea and is often eaten raw or cooked.

See it in a sentence

The chef shucked a dozen oysters and served them on ice with lemon wedges.

Some oysters produce pearls when a grain of sand becomes trapped inside their shell.

A note on using this word

In the idiom 'the world is your oyster', oyster means a place full of opportunity, not the animal itself.

Words with a similar meaning

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