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🚗 Car decoration ✈️ Aircraft stabilizer 🐟 Fish's rear fin
tail fin

tail fin

3.1
A flat fin at a fish's rear used to push and steer it in water
  • noun
  • /teɪl fɪn/
translation icon : aleta caudal

Examples

  • Each parental male in a large spawning colony makes his nest by sweeping his tail fin in the bed of a lake or river.

    Academic text (2005)

  • "The fish" stands "briefly on its tail fin before flopping sideways onto the mud.

    Academic text (2002)

  • After staking out a spot, parental males construct nests by sweeping a bowl-shaped depression in the lake bed with their tail fins.

    Academic text (2005)

  • The fish swam swiftly, propelling itself forward with its powerful tail fin.

  • The dolphin used its tail fin to steer gracefully through the water.

  • As the fish leaped out of the water, its tail fin glimmered in the sunlight.

Synonyms

fin
vstail fin
45 1.0

A flat part on a fish's body that helps it swim and stay balanced

refers specifically to the rear flattened appendage used to propel and steer
caudal fin
vstail fin
  • Specialized
6.0

A tail fin at the back of a fish that pushes water to make it move and steer

is the general descriptive phrase for that rear appendage used to move and steer
heterocercal fin
vstail fin
  • Specialized
9.9

A tail fin with a larger top than bottom and the backbone entering the top, like sharks

is the neutral rear appendage not defined by lobe size or vertebrae position
homocercal fin
vstail fin
  • Specialized
9.9

A tail fin that is the same on both sides and extends past the spine, seen in most bony fish

is the general rear appendage without specifying symmetry or extension

Surface Forms

tail fin singular
tail fins plural

Morphology

tail + fin

The meaning 'the fin at the tail of an aircraft' is directly derivable from combining 'tail' (rear part) with 'fin' (an appendage), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes an appendage at the rear used for stability. This noun–noun compounding follows a common, compositional pattern and the extension of 'fin' to non‑aquatic appendages is conceptually transparent across languages.

Etymology

Tail fin The flat fin at the back of a fish is the tail that pushes the fish forward and helps it steer, so tail fin means the rear fin used for swimming and turning.