Search results
- DictionaryFish/fiSH/
noun
- 1. a limbless cold-blooded vertebrate animal with gills and fins and living wholly in water: "the sea is thick with fish"
verb
- 1. catch or try to catch fish, typically by using a net or hook and line: "he was fishing for bluefish"
Learn the meaning of fish as a noun and a verb, with synonyms, examples, and word history. See also related phrases and articles about fish and its uses.
People also ask
What are the three main types of fish?
What is the most popular type of fish?
What are the risks of keeping fish as pets?
What are the benefits of keeping fish as pets?
an animal that lives in water, is covered with scales, and breathes by taking water in through its mouth, or the flesh of these animals eaten as food: Several large fish live in the pond. catch a fish Sanjay caught the biggest fish I've ever seen. I don't like fish (= don't like to eat fish).
A fish is an aquatic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits. Learn about the history, classification, and ecology of fish, as well as their importance for humans and their role in art and culture.
Learn the meaning of fish as a noun and a verb, with synonyms, related words, and idioms. Find out the difference between fish and fishes, and the origin and history of the word fish.
- Overview
- Structural diversity
A fish is any of approximately 34,000 species of vertebrate animals. The term fish is applied to a variety of vertebrates of several evolutionary lines. It describes a life-form rather than a taxonomic group.
How do fish sleep?
When a fish sleeps, it exists in a seemingly listless state in which the fish maintains its balance but moves slowly. If attacked or disturbed, most fish can dart away. A few kinds of fish lie on the bottom to sleep. Most fish do not have eyelids, so they cannot close their eyes to sleep.
How do fish hear?
The organs of hearing in fish are entirely internal, located within the skull, on each side of the brain, and somewhat behind the eyes. Sound waves, especially those of low frequencies, travel readily through water and impinge directly upon the bones and fluids of the head and body to be transmitted to the hearing organs.
fish, any of approximately 34,000 species of vertebrate animals (phylum Chordata) found in the fresh and salt waters of the world. Living species range from the primitive jawless lampreys and hagfishes through the cartilaginous sharks, skates, and rays to the abundant and diverse bony fishes. Most fish species are cold-blooded; however, one species, the opah (Lampris guttatus), is warm-blooded.
Fishes have been in existence for more than 450 million years, during which time they have evolved repeatedly to fit into almost every conceivable type of aquatic habitat. In a sense, land vertebrates are simply highly modified fishes: when fishes colonized the land habitat, they became tetrapod (four-legged) land vertebrates. The popular conception of a fish as a slippery, streamlined aquatic animal that possesses fins and breathes by gills applies to many fishes, but far more fishes deviate from that conception than conform to it. For example, the body is elongate in many forms and greatly shortened in others; the body is flattened in some (principally in bottom-dwelling fishes) and laterally compressed in many others; the fins may be elaborately extended, forming intricate shapes, or they may be reduced or even lost; and the positions of the mouth, eyes, nostrils, and gill openings vary widely. Air breathers have appeared in several evolutionary lines.
Students save 67%! Learn more about our special academic rate today.
Learn More
Many fishes are cryptically coloured and shaped, closely matching their respective environments; others are among the most brilliantly coloured of all organisms, with a wide range of hues, often of striking intensity, on a single individual. The brilliance of pigments may be enhanced by the surface structure of the fish, so that it almost seems to glow. A number of unrelated fishes have actual light-producing organs. Many fishes are able to alter their coloration—some for the purpose of camouflage, others for the enhancement of behavioral signals.
Learn the meaning and usage of the word fish, which can refer to various aquatic animals, their flesh, or a person. Find synonyms, related terms, and idioms for fish in this comprehensive online dictionary.
Learn the meaning of fish as a noun, verb, and acronym, with examples and synonyms. Find out the different types, forms, and uses of fish in English and American English.