seashells

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   the hard outer covering of a small sea animal, often found empty on beaches.

   Grammar: Countable: one seashell, two seashells. Use 'a seashell' or 'seashells' without 'the' when speaking generally.

   Patterns

   • collect seashells
   • a seashell on the beach
   • seashells from the ocean

   The children collected seashells along the shore.

   She put a large seashell to her ear and listened to the sound of the ocean.

   We found seashells of many different shapes and colors on the beach.

2. 2noununcountable

   the material of these coverings, used for making buttons, jewelry, or decorations.

   Grammar: Uncountable when talking about the material: 'made of seashell' or 'seashell jewelry'. Do not say 'a seashell jewelry'.

   Patterns

   • made of seashell
   • seashell jewelry
   • seashell buttons

   The necklace was made of tiny seashell pieces.

   She wore a bracelet decorated with seashell.

   The artist carved the box from seashell.

Word forms

Common combinations

collect seashells

We collected seashells in a bucket.

a seashell on the beach

I found a beautiful seashell on the beach.

seashell jewelry

She sells seashell jewelry at the market.

listen to a seashell

He likes to listen to a seashell to hear the sea.

seashell shapes

The cookies were cut into seashell shapes.

Synonyms and how they differ

shell

Use 'shell' for any hard outer covering, including eggs and nuts; 'seashell' is only for the sea animal's covering.

conch

A conch is a specific large spiral seashell, often used as a horn; 'seashell' is the general word.

Word family

seashell noun

Singular form; one shell from the sea.

shell noun

General word for a hard outer covering.

shellfish noun

Sea animals with shells, such as crabs and oysters.

Commonly confused: seashells or sea shell? seashells or sea urchin?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “seashells”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words