coelacanth
/ˈsiː.lə.kænθ/
coelacanth noun: any of the class Actinistia of primitive lobe-finned fish in the order Coelacanthiformes—thought to have been extinct for 70 million years until a living specimen was discovered in 1938. Most species are large and plump and they all have bodies covered in tough elasmoid scales that act as armor.
Noun
coelacanth (plural coelacanths)
- Any of the class Actinistia of primitive lobe-finned fish in the order Coelacanthiformes—thought to have been extinct for 70 million years until a living specimen was discovered in 1938. Most species are large and plump and they all have bodies covered in tough elasmoid scales that act as armor.
- Among them were ancient relatives of the piranhas and those popular aquarium fish the tetras, along with garfish and freshwater coelacanths, known as mawsonids.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 32
- Either of the two extant species in this group; the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) or the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis).
coelacanth meaning in Assamese, Indonesian and Vietnamese
coelacanth in Assamese
- either of two species of deep-water fish
- চিলাকেন্থ silakentho, চিলাকেন মাছ silaken mas
coelacanth in Indonesian
- either of two species of deep-water fish
- ikan raja laut
coelacanth in Vietnamese
- either of two species of deep-water fish
- cá vây tay
Synonyms of coelacanth
Forms of coelacanth
| plural | coelacanths |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | cœlacanth |
Origin of coelacanth
From the New Latin genus name Coelacanthus, from Ancient Greek κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”) + ἄκανθα (ákantha, “spine”), referring to the hollow caudal fin rays of the first fossil specimen described and named by Louis Agassiz in 1839.
Words formed from coelacanth
Questions about coelacanth
- What does coelacanth mean?
- Coelacanth means any of the class Actinistia of primitive lobe-finned fish in the order Coelacanthiformes—thought to have been extinct for 70 million years until a living specimen was discovered in 1938. Most species are large and plump and they all have bodies covered in tough elasmoid scales that act as armor.
- What is coelacanth in Assamese?
- Coelacanth in Assamese is চিলাকেন্থ (silakentho), চিলাকেন মাছ (silaken mas). See Coelacanth meaning in Assamese.
- What part of speech is coelacanth?
- Coelacanth is a noun.
- How do you pronounce coelacanth?
- Coelacanth is pronounced /ˈsiː.lə.kænθ/.
- What is the plural of coelacanth?
- The plural of coelacanth is coelacanths.
Words near coelacanth in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: coelacanth (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-coelacanth.ogg.
Cite this entry: “coelacanth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coelacanth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.