Noun: coral
| Singular | coral |
| Plural | corals |
Sample Sentences
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The coral faded even from her lips, till they were as white as Leo's face, and quivered pitifully. [1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:]
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On the very chair which I used to occupy when I was at work Marian was sitting now, with the child industriously sucking his coral upon her lap. [1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White:]
Nouns inflected like coral
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Old French coral (French corail), from Latin corallium, from Ancient Greek κοράλλιον (korállion, “coral”). Probably ultimately of Semitic origin, compare Hebrew גּוֹרָל (goral, “small pebble”), Arabic جَرَل (jaral, “small stone”), originally referring to the red variety found in the Mediterranean. Since ancient times, a common folk etymology, accepted by some earlier scholars, connected the word instead to Ancient Greek κόρη (kórē) (referring to Medusa). Beekes mentions both theories and considers the Semitic one convincing. See: French Nouns '
corail', Latin Nouns '
corallium', Ancient Greek Nouns '
κοράλλιον'.