nounplural noun cowries

• 1A marine mollusk that has a smooth, glossy, domed shell with a long narrow opening, typically brightly patterned and popular with collectors.

  Genus Cypraea, family Cypraeidae, class Gastropoda: numerous species, including the small money cowrie (C. moneta)

  ‘We found tiny cowries on the soft corals and red spider crabs on the fans.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘These include Vasum, some photine buccinids, and some cypraeid cowries.’
  • ‘Here butterfish can be seen feeding on mussels, and cowries are also in evidence.’
  • ‘There are mushroom and staghorn corals, tiger cowries and batfish.’
  • ‘There are numerous varieties of shrimps, juvenile morays, and a collection of shells including tiger cowries.’
  • ‘In addition to coconut shells, one can use cowries or other ocean shells, and even gunpowder.’
  • ‘According to this article, the cowries are called ‘Elegba's shells,’ and are distinct from Ifa's palm nuts.’
  • ‘There were giant leopard cowries nestled in between coral heads.’
  • ‘‘That's a mouse cowry,’ the doctor said. ‘A lovely find.’’
  • ‘I played lookout for my shutter-happy dive buddy, spotting cowries and posing with batfish as I did my safety stop.’

  1. 1.1The flattened yellowish shell of the money cowrie, formerly used as money in parts of Africa and the Indo-Pacific area.
     ‘Jabali said, ‘I don't have a single cowrie - and even if I had I wouldn't give it.‘’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The article explains how cowries were exchanged for slaves and how East African gold entered Indian Ocean circuits.’
     • ‘Almost all of the RAC's cowries went to the Slave Coast, with few arriving at any other destination.’
     • ‘Archaeologists also found a profusion of cowries and roughly 800 large bronze relics.’