Nacreous means shiny and bright without glittering or sparkling, like mother-of-pearl. Mother-of-pearl is the hard, pearly layer that is found inside certain marine shells, such as oysters. Nacerous is also used to describe certain groups of bacteria. Nacreous comes from the Greek word "nacre" meaning "mother of pearl," and the Greek word "osus" meaning "characterized by." Put the two words together and you have "characterized by mother-of-pearl."

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