crayfish

/ˈkɹeɪˌfɪʃ/

crayfish noun: any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamily Astacoidea or Parastacoidea, resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller. Also the alternative spelling of crawfish.

Image: USFWS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

crayfish (plural crayfishes or crayfish)

Any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamily Astacoidea or Parastacoidea, resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller.
1. (New-England, Pennsylvania, Upper Midwestern US) A freshwater crustacean (family Cambaridae), sometimes used as an inexpensive seafood or as fish bait.
(Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) A rock lobster (family Palinuridae).
(Australia) A freshwater crayfish (family Parastacidae), such as the gilgie, marron, or yabby.
(Singapore) The species Thenus orientalis of the slipper lobster family (Scyllaridae).

Synonyms:

Moreton Bay bug

Verb

crayfish (third-person singular simple present crayfishes, present participle crayfishing, simple past and past participle crayfished)

(intransitive) To catch crayfish.

Also used as

crayfish is also the alternative spelling of crawfish.

crayfish meaning in Hindi, Arabic, Persian and Thai

crayfish in Hindi

freshwater crustacean resembling lobster: चिंगट ciṅgaṭ, क्रेफ़िश krefiś

crayfish in Arabic

freshwater crustacean resembling lobster: جَرَاد الْبَحْر jarād al-baḥr

crayfish in Persian

freshwater crustacean resembling lobster: چنگاره čangâre, خارچنگ xârčang

crayfish in Thai

freshwater crustacean resembling lobster: เครย์ฟิช kree-fít, กุ้ง gûng

More languagesFewer languages

crayfish in Vietnamese: tôm hùm đất
crayfish in Myanmar: ပုစွန် pu.cwan

Synonyms of crayfish

All synonyms of crayfish

Forms of crayfish

Noun
plural	crayfishes
plural	crayfish
alternative form	crawfish
alternative form	crevis
alternative form	crevyssh
alternative form (obsolete)	craifish
alternative form (obsolete)	crafish
alternative form (obsolete)	crefish
Verb
third-person singular present	crayfishes
present participle	crayfishing
past participle	crayfished
past	crayfished

Plural of crayfish: crayfishes or crayfish

Origin of crayfish

Alteration (by folk etymological influence of fish) of Middle English crevis (whence modern dialectal crevis), from Old French crevice ("crayfish"; > Modern French: écrevisse), from Frankish *krebitja (“crayfish”), diminutive of Frankish *krebit (“crab”), from Proto-Germanic *krabitaz (“crab, cancer”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ-, *grebʰ- (“to scratch, crawl”), or from a substrate word folk-etymologically influenced by this root. Akin to Old High German krebiz (Modern German Krebs (“crustacean, crab, crayfish”)), Middle Low German krēvet (“crab, crayfish”), Dutch kreeft (“crayfish, lobster”), Old English crabba (“crab”). More at crab. Doublet of crevette, crevis, and Krebs.

Words formed from crayfish

Phrases with crayfish

Questions about crayfish

What does crayfish mean?: Crayfish means any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamily Astacoidea or Parastacoidea, resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller.
What is crayfish in Hindi?: Crayfish in Hindi is चिंगट (ciṅgaṭ), क्रेफ़िश (krefiś). See Crayfish meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is crayfish?: Crayfish can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce crayfish?: Crayfish is pronounced /ˈkɹeɪˌfɪʃ/.
What is the plural of crayfish?: The plural of crayfish is crayfishes.

Words near crayfish in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: crayfish (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-crayfish.ogg, EN-AU ck1 crayfish.ogg.

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