DAMSELFISH (damselfishes)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: damselfishes   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does damselfish mean? 

• DAMSELFISH (noun)
  The noun DAMSELFISH has 1 sense:

1. small brilliantly colored tropical marine fishes of coral reefs

  Familiarity information: DAMSELFISH used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DAMSELFISH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Small brilliantly colored tropical marine fishes of coral reefs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

damselfish; demoiselle

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

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

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

beaugregory; Pomacentrus leucostictus (a blue and yellow damselfish of Bermuda and Florida and the West Indies)

anemone fish (live associated with sea anemones)

Abudefduf saxatilis; sergeant major (large blue-grey black-striped damselfish; nearly worldwide)

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

family Pomacentridae; Pomacentridae (damselfishes)

 Context examples 

P. damselae is an opportunistic pathogen that has been isolated from infectious sites in damselfishes, sharks, dolphins, and humans.

(Photobacterium damselae, NCI Thesaurus)