baitfish
baitfish noun: small fish such as minnows that are used as bait to catch larger predatory fish.
Noun
baitfish (plural baitfishes or baitfish)
- Small fish such as minnows that are used as bait to catch larger predatory fish.
- He said increased baitfish numbers after an upwelling of nutrient-rich water three years ago had contributed to the increase in shark numbers.2009 January 13, By Malcolm Holland, “Experts track record shark numbers off beaches”, in Herald-Sun
- Fish that can be caught using bait.
Forms of baitfish
| plural | baitfishes |
|---|---|
| plural | baitfish |
Origin of baitfish
From bait + fish.
Words formed from baitfish
Questions about baitfish
- What does baitfish mean?
- Baitfish means small fish such as minnows that are used as bait to catch larger predatory fish.
- What part of speech is baitfish?
- Baitfish is a noun.
- What is the plural of baitfish?
- The plural of baitfish is baitfishes.
Words near baitfish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: baitfish (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-baitfish.wav.
Cite this entry: “baitfish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/baitfish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.