swim bladder
1
5.0
- noun
- /swɪm ˈblædər/
- Specialized
:
vejiga natatoria
- By using the muscles surrounding the swim bladder, these fish can produce a drumming sound—hence the name.
- swim bladder expansion
They don't have swim bladders like the Bony fishes do.
- They don't have swim bladders like the Bony fishes do.
Examples
-
Assuming unrestricted expansion, a fish brought from 65 m may experience a 7.5-fold increase in gas volume in its swim bladder.
Academic text (1992) -
The problems are more serious for fish caught at greater depths, especially for physoclistous fishes with closed swim bladders.
Academic text (1992) -
In most living fish, however, lungs have transformed into swim bladders.
Academic text (2003) -
Can sense the swim bladders that fish use to maintain their buoyancy.
-
Lingcod lack a swim bladder and apparently do not suffer adverse gas expansion effects.
Academic text (1998) -
Both the swim bladder and lateral line system are well developed, especially in the sciaenids.
Academic text (1995) -
Swim bladder problems and constipation are among the leading causes of death in goldfish.
Blog text (20) -
Slimy sculpin lack swim bladders and are relatively poor swimmers (Scott and Crossman 1973).
Academic text (1999) -
The male toadfish guard their nests, and during the night they use muscles around their swim bladders to vibrate them, creating a call to lure in females.
-
Many fish have a swim bladder, a gas-filled sac that helps them maintain their buoyancy at different depths.
Synonyms
3
7.4
An air sac near a fish's backbone that helps it stay level in water
1
4.9
A sac inside many fish that holds air and helps them float at different depths
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'swim bladder' is directly interpretable as a bladder (an organ that stores gas) related to swimming; a B1 learner who knows 'swim' and 'bladder' can infer an air-filled organ used for buoyancy. This noun+noun compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common, so the meaning is immediately derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Swim bladder is a compound name for a small, air-filled sac inside many fish. The bladder works like a tiny balloon the fish can fill or empty to help it swim at different depths, so the name explains why the organ lets a fish 'float' or 'stay at a particular depth' without much effort.