A gem formed within the shell of certain mollusks.
The word appears only once in the Old Testament (Job 28:18). Some think that the "reddish" stone in Lamentations 4:7 refers to a pink pearl from the Red Sea. By the New Testament period, the pearl was:
Prized jewelry (1 Timothy 2:9)
An item of trade (Matthew 13:45–46; Revelation 18:12–16)
An object of high price
Being familiar objects, Jesus used pearls often in his illustrations. A fine pearl was an object of such great value that a man might sell all his accumulated wealth to buy it (Matthew 13:45–46). A pearl (a metaphor for the Lord's word) would not be given to those, like pigs, who did not value it (Matthew 7:6).