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Glite Dictionary
lookdown

lookdown

9.9
A shiny silver sea fish with a flat, deep body and eyes set high on its head
  • noun
  • /ˈlʊkˌdaʊn/
  • Specialized
: pez mirada
  • The aquarium featured a lookdown with its distinctive sloped forehead that intrigued many visitors.

Examples

  • In the sunny waters of Florida, a lookdown swam gracefully among the coral reefs.

  • There’s a lookdown SCIF off the main 64.

    Black Bag (2025)

  • The fisherman caught a lookdown while trawling in the Atlantic Ocean.

Synonyms

Selene vomer
vslookdown
  • Specialized
9.9

A silvery sea fish with a very flat body and eyes high on its forehead

is the everyday common name rather than the formal Latin label
lookdown fish
vslookdown
  • Specialized
9.1

A sea fish with a flat shiny silver body and eyes high on its head

is the simple single-word common name rather than a descriptive phrase

Compounds

lookdown fish
  • Specialized
9.1

A sea fish with a flat shiny silver body and eyes high on its head

Surface Forms

lookdown singular
lookdowns plural

Morphology

lookdown = look (opaque) = down + look

Although composed of the words 'look' and 'down', the name refers to a specific fish species and this meaning is not derivable by a typical learner from the components. [Postprocessing: moved 'down' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Lookdown comes from the simple English words look and down because the fish's steep forehead and high-set eyes make it seem to 'look down' toward the sea. So a lookdown is a silvery fish you can remember by its face that looks as if it is looking down.