Word.ws English Dictionary

halibut

/ˈhæ.lɪ.bət/

halibut noun: a large flatfish of the genus Hippoglossus, which sometimes leaves the ocean floor and swims vertically.

halibut: a large flatfish of the genus Hippoglossus, which sometimes leaves the ocean floor and swims...
Image: Krüger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

halibut (plural halibuts or halibut)

  1. A large flatfish of the genus Hippoglossus, which sometimes leaves the ocean floor and swims vertically.
    • [...] she frowned a displeased frown and told me for heaven's sake to stop goggling like a dead halibut.1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter IV

halibut meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Arabic and Malay

halibut in Tamil

போத்தா மீன்

halibut in Bengali

হ্যালিবাট মাছ

halibut in Arabic

flatfish of the genus Hippoglossus
هَلْبُوت halbūt

halibut in Malay

flatfish of the genus Hippoglossus
halibut

Forms of halibut

pluralhalibuts
pluralhalibut
alternative formhallibut
alternative formholibut
alternative formhalibutt
alternative formholibutt

Plural of halibut: halibuts or halibut

Origin of halibut

From Middle English halibut, equivalent to holy + butt (“flatfish”), since the fish was often eaten on holy days. Cognate with Dutch heilbot, German Heiligbutt, Heilbutt, Heilbutte, Danish helleflynder, Swedish helgeflundra, and Norwegian Nynorsk hellefisk.

Words formed from halibut

Questions about halibut

What does halibut mean?
Halibut means a large flatfish of the genus Hippoglossus, which sometimes leaves the ocean floor and swims vertically.
What is halibut in Tamil?
Halibut in Tamil is போத்தா மீன். See Halibut meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is halibut?
Halibut is a noun.
How do you pronounce halibut?
Halibut is pronounced /ˈhæ.lɪ.bət/.
What is the plural of halibut?
The plural of halibut is halibuts.

Words near halibut in the dictionary

  1. halfyears
  2. Halh
  3. Haliburton
  4. Haliburton County
  5. Haliburtons
  6. halibut
  7. halibuter
  8. halibuters
  9. halibuts
  10. halibutt
  11. halibutter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: halibut (page history and authors); halibut (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); halibut (Bengali Wiktionary) (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)-Vealhurl-halibut.wav.

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