piranha
26
5.5
- noun
- /pɪˈrɑːnə/
- If you swim in the lake, be careful of the piranha; their sharp teeth can be dangerous.
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Watch on YouTubeThe insects, the snakes, the creatures that will eat you up, the piranhas in the river.
- The insects, the snakes, the creatures that will eat you up, the piranhas in the river.
- Now the water is you've got Cayman, you've got electric eels, you've got Stingray, you've got piranha.
- We go out and there is all of this fish and we're like, yeah, what did piranha taste like?
- But the flesh eating piranhas whipping up social media outrage are only too happy to trample on the rights of honest, hard working men like him.
Examples
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The piranhas were devouring the part of the monkey that was lying in the water.
Fiction book (1993) -
in its own environment, the piranha is a ferocious killer.
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You will see that my piranha fish get very hungry.
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A woman saw a piranha in the splash pool.
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There are piranhas in there.
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The fish tank in the Blue Sage room holds piranhas.
Academic text (2009) -
The children were playing on the river without concern about the fearsome piranhas.
Academic text (2005) -
In another corner stands a cylindrical floor-to-ceiling fish tank, filled with piranha.
Fiction book (1991) -
The documentary showed how a piranha can swiftly attack its prey in the Amazon river.
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In the aquarium, children were fascinated by the piranha as it swam in its tank.
Synonyms
1
8.2
A small aggressive river fish from South America that eats other animals
A small freshwater fish from South America with sharp teeth that attacks and eats other animals
A freshwater fish with sharp teeth that eats meat in rivers of South America
Surface Forms
Etymology
Piranha comes from the South American Tupi language, where pira means 'fish' and anha means 'tooth', so it originally meant 'tooth fish'. That's why a piranha is the sharp-toothed freshwater fish known for biting flesh and sometimes attacking animals.