Meanings
opals1
- pluralplural of opal
Opals2
- AustraliaThe women's national basketball representative team of Australia.
She′d made the train on squad for the Australian Opals basketball team and also played rugby for the Sydney University woman′s team.
2009, Nick Ireland, The Popondetta Butterfly, page 342 more examples
Carrie Graf knows about coaching creative individual players, as she has coached women′s basketball superstar Lauren Jackson, who shot to fame as a 15-year-old and joined the Australian women′s Opals basketball team by 16.
2001, Australian Sports Commission, edited by Frank S. Pyke, Better Coaching: Advanced Coach′s Manual, 2nd edition, page 227This, combined with a sycophantic basketball press in Australia, created a weight of expectation that was slowly crushing the young player. Four months before the Olympics, Opals coach Maher lamented that he was having ‘a few too many’ talks with her on how to cope.
2002, Cameron Stewart, “High Hopes”, in Garrie Hutchinson, editor, The Best Australian Sports Writing, 2002, page 38
Origin
From opal, a gemstone mined in Australia.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
opals. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/opals
“opals.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/opals. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “opals,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/opals.
Source: opals on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.