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Possible definitions for opalv

opal
A hydrated, noncrystalline silica mineral used extensively as a gemstone. Its chemical composition is similar to that of quartz but generally with a variable water content. Pure opal is colorless, but impurities generally give it various dull colors ranging from yellow and red to black. Black opal is especially rare and valuable. White opal and fire opal, characterized by yellow, orange, or red color, are much more common. Various forms of common opal are widely used as abrasives, insulation material, and ceramic ingredients. Opal is most abundant in volcanic rocks, especially in areas of hot-spring activity. The finest gem opals have been found in Australia; other areas that yield gem material include Japan, Mexico, Honduras, India, New Zealand, and the U.S.


Ogilvy
British advertising executive. After an Oxford education, he worked as an apprentice chef and stove salesman before taking a job in an advertising agency. He spent a year in the U.S. learning U.S. advertising techniques. In 1948, with Anderson Hewitt, he formed Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, which became one of the world's largest advertising firms. He is noted for reminding his colleagues that "the consumer is not a moron," and his ads for brands such as Schweppes and Rolls-Royce were admired for their creativity.


oxalis
Any of about 850 species of small herbaceous plants that make up the genus Oxalis, native mostly to S Africa and tropical and S. America. Most members are familiar garden ornamentals. The name (Greek for "acid") reflects the plant's sharp acidic taste. The common wood sorrel (O. acetosella) of E N. America and Britain is a small, stemless plant with cloverlike three-part leaves, whose leaflets fold back and droop at night. The flowers have five white, purple-veined petals. After the fruit splits open, the fleshy coat of the seed curls back elastically, ejecting the true seed.


pale
District separated from the surrounding country by defined boundaries or set apart by a distinctive administrative and legal system. In imperial Russia from the late 18th cent., the Pale of Settlement was the area in which Jews were permitted to live. By the 19th cent. it included all of Russian Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Crimea, Bessarabia, and most of Ukraine. It ceased to exist during World War I, when Jews in great numbers fled to the interior, and it was abolished in 1917. The English maintained a pale in Ireland until the entire island was subjugated under Elizabeth I in the 16th cent.


palm
Any of about 2,800 species of flowering, subtropical trees, shrubs, and vines that make up the family Arecaceae (or Palmae). Many are economically important. Palms furnish food, shelter, clothing, timber, fuel, building materials, fibers, starch, oils, waxes, and wines for local populations in the tropics. Many species have very limited ranges; some grow only on single islands. Their fast growth ...

Top words beginning with O: overrigid, overcrown, omnific, overinvolves, overwave, optology, overloading, officialize, oxalamide, orchestras, olfactive, oblational, oophoromania, overattention, oospora, odinite, outwrestle, ontic, orchiotomy, obnoxiousnesses

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