fishbowl
fishbowl is the alternative form of fish bowl.
Meaning of fish bowl
Noun
fish bowl (plural fish bowls)
- A small, rounded, transparent, and domestic aquarium.
- We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl / Year after year1975 September 12, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, “Wish You Were Here”, in Wish You Were Here, performed by Pink Floyd
- Synonyms:
- goldfish bowl
- Any place or event that lacks privacy or is intensely scrutinized.
- Synonyms:
- goldfish bowl
- A variety of discussions where participants are organized in concentric circles and take turns where they and others in the same group are allowed to speak according to a set of rules.
- John Hinkle, Outreach Consultant, observing a fishbowl conversation.1969, Oklahoma Librarian, volume 19, Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Library Association
- The central and smallest circle where the speakers are located in some versions of such a discussion.
Forms of fishbowl
| plural | fishbowls |
|---|
Origin of fishbowl
From fish + bowl.
Questions about fishbowl
- What is fishbowl the alternative form of?
- Fishbowl is the alternative form of fish bowl.
Words near fishbowl in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fishbowl (page history and authors); fish bowl (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)-Wodencafe-fishbowl.wav.
Cite this entry: “fishbowl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fishbowl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.