catfish

/ˈkætfɪʃ/

catfish noun: any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and having barbels like whiskers around the mouth.

Image: Basenji1908, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

catfish (countable and uncountable, plural catfish or catfishes)

Any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and having barbels like whiskers around the mouth.
- “You don’t see catfish that big anymore, except in Chernobyl […] Nobody fishes there anymore, so the catfish thrive. They’ve gotten really enormous, some even twelve or thirteen feet long. They’re bottom-feeders, and apparently the mud still contains a lot of radioactive particles, but the catfish...2013, Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being, Canongate Books (2019), page 213
Synonyms:

catlet, sheat, sheatfish, river chicken
The meat of such a fish, popular in the Southern U.S. and Central Europe.

Verb (1)

catfish (third-person singular simple present catfishes, present participle catfishing, simple past and past participle catfished)

(intransitive) To fish for catfish.
- I only use this rod for catfishing.

Noun (2)

catfish (plural catfish or catfishes)

(Internet) Someone who creates a false profile on a social media platform in order to deceive people.
- Real people in a picture that was used by a catfish to create a fake identity could have a claim because their likeness was used without permission, Shear said.2013 January 17, Mary Pilon, “In Te’o Story, Deception Ripped From the Screen”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2020
- Many online dating users create profiles on these online dating platforms looking for potential partners. However, they might end up meeting with users who have bad intentions, potential catfish. These catfish have begun pushing away potential, innocent users and possibly hindering the success of...2020, Mariah Simmons, Joon Suk Lee, “Catfishing: A Look into Online Dating and Impersonation”, in Gabriele Meiselwitz, editor, Social Computing and Social Media. Design, Ethics, User Behavior, and...
Synonyms:

catfisher
(Internet) Such a false profile.

Verb (2)

catfish (third-person singular simple present catfishes, present participle catfishing, simple past and past participle catfished)

(Internet, slang, transitive) To create and operate a fake online profile to deceive (someone).
- Getting catfished is when someone falls for a person online who is not necessarily real. It can involve pictures, phone calls, social media profiles, text messages, e-mails and even phony friends or family members.2013 January 17, Mary Pilon, “In Te’o Story, Deception Ripped From the Screen”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2020
- [to Abed] You made a profile for a fake dude and lured her into an online relationship. [to Annie] He's catfishing you.2014 January 16, 12:17 from the start, in Cooperative Polygraphy (Community), season 5, episode 4 (TV), spoken by Troy (Donald Glover), via NBC

catfish meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

catfish in Tamil

type of fish — see also sheatfish: கெளுத்தி மீன் keḷutti mīṉ, கெளிறு keḷiṟu, கெழுது keḻutu

catfish in Urdu

کیٹ فش, کیٹفش

More languagesFewer languages

catfish in Bengali: মাগুর magur
catfish in Telugu: పిల్లిచేప pillicēpa
catfish in Malayalam: ക്യാറ്റ്ഫിഷ്, ക്യാറ്റ് ഫിഷ്, കാറ്റ്ഫിഷ്
catfish in Kannada: ಕ್ಯಾಟ್ಫಿಶ್, ಕ್ಯಾಟ್ ಫಿಷ್, ಕ್ಯಾಟ್ಫಿಷ್
catfish in Punjabi: ਕੈਟਫਿਸ਼, ਕੈੱਟਫਿਸ਼, ਕੈੱਟ ਫਿਸ਼
catfish in Gujarati: કેટફિશ
catfish in Odia: କ୍ଯ଼ାଟ୍ଫିଶ୍, କ୍ଯ଼ାଟଫିଶ୍, କ୍ଯ଼ାଟଫିଶ
catfish in Assamese: মাগুৰ magur
catfish in Nepali: क्याटफिश
catfish in Tagalog: hito
catfish in Arabic: سَلُّور sallūr
catfish in Malay: keli
catfish in Indonesian: lele
catfish in Persian: سلور selur, گربهماهی gorbe-mâhi
catfish in Thai: ปลาดุก bplaa-dùk
catfish in Vietnamese: cá trê
catfish in Myanmar: ငါးခူ nga:hku

Examples of catfish in a sentence

“You don’t see catfish that big anymore, except in Chernobyl […] Nobody fishes there anymore, so the catfish thrive.2013, Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being, Canongate Books (2019), page 213:
However, they might end up meeting with users who have bad intentions, potential catfish.2020, Mariah Simmons, Joon Suk Lee, “Catfishing: A Look into Online Dating and Impersonation”, in Gabriele Meiselwitz, editor, Social...

All 33 example sentences with catfish

Synonyms of catfish

All synonyms of catfish

Forms of catfish

Noun
plural	catfish
plural	catfishes
Verb
third-person singular present	catfishes
present participle	catfishing
past participle	catfished
past	catfished

Plural of catfish: catfish or catfishes

Origin of catfish

From cat + fish. Likely so named for its prominent barbels like a cat's whiskers. Compare West Frisian katfisk (“catfish”), Dutch katvis (“catfish”). Compare also German Seekatze (“catfish”, literally “sea-cat”).

From the 2010 documentary Catfish, supposedly inspired by the practice of fishermen keeping cod active by storing them with catfish (see sense 1) which nip at their tails.

Words formed from catfish

Questions about catfish

What does catfish mean?: Catfish means any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and having barbels like whiskers around the mouth.
What is catfish in Hindi?: Catfish in Hindi is मगुरी (magurī). See Catfish meaning in Hindi.
How do you use catfish in a sentence?: “You don’t see catfish that big anymore, except in Chernobyl […] Nobody fishes there anymore, so the catfish thrive.
What part of speech is catfish?: Catfish can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce catfish?: Catfish is pronounced /ˈkætfɪʃ/.
What is the plural of catfish?: The plural of catfish is catfish.

Words near catfish in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-catfish.ogg.

Cite this entry: “catfish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catfish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.