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🐋 A small whale 🐠 A food fish 🐟 A female salmon
blackfish

blackfish

1 7.5
A dark sea fish often caught and eaten for food
  • noun
  • /ˈblækˌfɪʃ/
  • US
translation icon : tautoga
  • The fishermen brought in a large catch of blackfish last week, which they sold at the market.
  • blackfish, sea bass
  • blackfish, sea

Our plan is still to give the ugly Blackfish for lunch.

Examples

  • He was excited to catch a blackfish, a prized food fish known for its dark flesh and flavor.

  • The ocean was not friendly and very rolly, but once we got anchored up, we started picking away at the blackfish with good short action and ended up with several limits (now 6 per person) around the boat.

    Blog text (17)

  • During the summer, schools of blackfish can often be found swimming near the rocky shores.

Synonyms

Tautoga onitis
vsblackfish
  • Specialized
9.9

A large dark fish found on the Atlantic coast of North America often called tautog or blackfish

refers to the same fish by its common general name
tautoga
vsblackfish
  • US
9.9

A large sea fish people eat that lives near rocks

is the ordinary name used for that same edible coastal fish
tautog
vsblackfish
  • US
9.9

A large dark fish from the Atlantic coast that people eat

is the general term focused on the fish as food rather than fishing activity

Compounds

common blackfish
  • US
8.5

A small dark whale that lives off the Atlantic coast in groups led by a large male

Surface Forms

blackfish singular
blackfishes plural

Morphology

blackfish = black + fish (semi-transparent) = black + fish

The compound literally indicates a dark-coloured fish (clear from the components), but the term is often used as a common name for particular species (e.g., tautog), which is a narrower, specialized sense.

Etymology

Blackfish comes from the two simple parts black and fish, a name coastal people gave to a large dark sea fish because of its color. So blackfish means a big dark food fish.