BUTTERFISH (butterfishes)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: butterfishes   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does butterfish mean? 

• BUTTERFISH (noun)
  The noun BUTTERFISH has 3 senses:

1. any of numerous small flat Atlantic food fish having smooth skin

2. small marine fish with a short compressed body and feeble spines

3. slippery scaleless food fish of the northern Atlantic coastal waters

  Familiarity information: BUTTERFISH used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BUTTERFISH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous small flat Atlantic food fish having smooth skin

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("butterfish" is a kind of...):

saltwater fish (flesh of fish from the sea used as food)

Holonyms ("butterfish" is a part of...):

butterfish; Pholis gunnellus; rock gunnel (slippery scaleless food fish of the northern Atlantic coastal waters)

butterfish; stromateid; stromateid fish (small marine fish with a short compressed body and feeble spines)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Small marine fish with a short compressed body and feeble spines

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

butterfish; stromateid; stromateid fish

Hypernyms ("butterfish" is a kind of...):

percoid; percoid fish; percoidean (any of numerous spiny-finned fishes of the order Perciformes)

Meronyms (parts of "butterfish"):

butterfish (any of numerous small flat Atlantic food fish having smooth skin)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "butterfish"):

dollarfish; Poronotus triacanthus (small food fish of Atlantic coast)

California pompano; palometa; Palometa simillima (smaller than Florida pompano; common in West Indies)

harvestfish; Paprilus alepidotus (butterfish up to a foot long of Atlantic waters from Chesapeake Bay to Argentina)

driftfish (small (6 inches) tropical butterfishes found worldwide)

driftfish (larger butterfishes of the western Atlantic from the New York area to the northern Gulf of Mexico)

barrelfish; black rudderfish; Hyperglyphe perciformis (blackish fish of New England waters)

Holonyms ("butterfish" is a member of...):

family Stromateidae; Stromateidae (butterfishes: harvest fishes; dollar fishes)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Slippery scaleless food fish of the northern Atlantic coastal waters

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

butterfish; Pholis gunnellus; rock gunnel

Hypernyms ("butterfish" is a kind of...):

bracketed blenny; gunnel (small eellike fishes common in shallow waters of the northern Atlantic)

Meronyms (parts of "butterfish"):

butterfish (any of numerous small flat Atlantic food fish having smooth skin)

Holonyms ("butterfish" is a member of...):

genus Pholis; Pholis (type genus of the Pholidae: gunnels)