shell

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: B1 — Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun ammunition consisting of a cylindrical metal casing containing an explosive charge and a projectile; fired from a large gun
  2. noun the material that forms the hard outer covering of many animals
  3. noun hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles

Etymology

From Middle English schelle, from Old English sċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *skallju, from Proto-Germanic *skaljō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cleave”). Compare West Frisian skyl (“peel, rind”), Dutch schil (“peel, skin, rink”), Low German Schell (“shell, scale”), Irish scelec (“pebble”), Old Church Slavonic сколика (skolika, “shell”). More at shale. Doublet of sheal. * (computing): From being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the operating-system internals.

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