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conch

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒŋk/

The English word “conch” has 7 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A marine gastropod of the family Strombidae which lives in its own spiral shell.
  2. The shell of this sea animal.
  3. A musical instrument made from a large spiral seashell, somewhat like a trumpet.
  4. The semidome of an apse, or the apse itself.
  5. Synonym of concher (“machine used to refine the flavour and texture of chocolate”).

verb

  1. To refine the flavour and texture of chocolate by warming and grinding, either in a traditional concher, or between rollers.
  2. To play a conch seashell as a musical instrument, by blowing through a hole made close to the origin of the spiral.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin concha, borrowed from Ancient Greek κόγχη (kónkhē, “a mussel or cockle; a shell-like cavity”). Doublet of concha.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.