jellyfish
Syllables: jel·ly·fish/ˈd͡ʒɛliˌfɪʃ/
jellyfish noun: an almost transparent aquatic animal; any one of the acalephs, especially one of the larger species, having a jellylike appearance. Also the ellipsis of space jellyfish.
Noun
jellyfish (countable and uncountable, plural jellyfish or jellyfishes)
- An almost transparent aquatic animal; any one of the acalephs, especially one of the larger species, having a jellylike appearance.
- A recent study focused on the enzymatic and cytotoxic functions of jellyfish metalloproteases and identified diverse proteolytic effects including gelatinolytic, caseinolytic, and fibrinolytic activities.2015 June 18, Mahdokht Jouiaei et al., “Ancient Venom Systems: A Review on Cnidaria Toxins”, in Toxins, volume 7, →DOI
- There are asexual variants among all sorts of creatures, including jellyfish, dandelions, lichens and lizards.2018 April 24, John Launer, “Do We Even Need Men?”, in Literary Hub
- Any of various species of cnidarians in the subphylum Medusozoa, including box jellyfish (class Cubozoa), true jellyfish (class Scyphozoa), stalked jellyfish (class Staurozoa), and certain hydrozoans.
- The medusa phase of these animals rather than a younger life stage.
- A ctenophore, a member of the phylum Ctenophora (comb jellies).
- A sudoku technique involving possible cell locations for a digit, or pair, or triple, in uniquely four rows and four columns only. This allows for the elimination of candidates around the grid.
Also used as
jellyfish is also the ellipsis of space jellyfish.
jellyfish meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
jellyfish in Hindi
- aquatic animal
- जेलिफ़िश jelifiś, गिजगिजिया gijgijiyā
jellyfish in Tamil
- aquatic animal
- இழுது iḻutu, சொறிமுட்டை coṟimuṭṭai
jellyfish in Urdu
- aquatic animal
- جیلِیفِش jelīfiś
jellyfish in Bengali
- aquatic animal
- জেলিফিশ jeliphiś
More languagesFewer languages
- jellyfish in Malayalam
- കടല്ച്ചൊറി kaṭalccoṟi
- jellyfish in Sinhala
- ලොඩි loḍi, ජෙලිෆිෂ් jelifiṣ
- jellyfish in Assamese
- সাগৰীয়া ছাতি xagoria sati, জেলীমাছ zelimas
- jellyfish in Pashto
- مېډوسا
- jellyfish in Tagalog
- dikya
- jellyfish in Arabic
- قِنْدِيل الْبَحْر qindīl al-baḥr, قِنْدِيل qindīl
- jellyfish in Malay
- ampai-ampai, ubur-ubur, obor-obor
- jellyfish in Indonesian
- ubur-ubur, ampai-ampai
- jellyfish in Thai
- แมงกะพรุน mɛɛng-gà-prun, กะพรุน gà-prun
- jellyfish in Vietnamese
- sứa
- jellyfish in Myanmar
- ငါးဖန်ခွက် nga:hpanhkwak
Examples of jellyfish in a sentence
- It got trapped in the fishing net because it's a big stupid jellyfish!
- Jellyfish are composed of more than 90% water and most of their umbrella mass is made up of gelatinous material.
- An unarmed jellyfish would never capture prey.
Synonyms of jellyfish
Forms of jellyfish
| plural | jellyfish |
|---|---|
| plural | jellyfishes |
Origin of jellyfish
From jelly + fish. From being an aquatic creature (i.e. fish) that is gelatinous (“jelly”). Despite the name, jellyfish are not biologically classified as fish. The term appeared in the mid-19th century and displaced various older terms such as sea jelly (now much less common), blubber/sea blubber, nettle/sea nettle (both now referring to specific jellyfish species), and, in scientific literature, medusa.
Words formed from jellyfish
- alarm jellyfish
- arctic red jellyfish
- Atolla jellyfish
- barrel jellyfish
- blubber jellyfish
- blue blubber jellyfish
- blue bottle jellyfish
- box jellyfish
- cabbagehead jellyfish
- cannonball jellyfish
- cigar jellyfish
- common jellyfish
- compass jellyfish
- compound jellyfish
- crown jellyfish
- flame jellyfish
- fried-egg jellyfish
- giant jellyfish
- helmet jellyfish
- immortal jellyfish
- Irukandji jellyfish
- jellyfish itch
- jellyfish baby
- jellyfish galaxy
- jellyfish tree
- jellyfish UFO
- jellyfishlike
- jellyfishy
- lion's mane jellyfish
- moon jellyfish
- mushroom jellyfish
- Nomura's jellyfish
- purple-striped jellyfish
- rocket jellyfish
- space jellyfish
- stalked jellyfish
- thimble jellyfish
Phrases with jellyfish
Questions about jellyfish
- What does jellyfish mean?
- Jellyfish means an almost transparent aquatic animal; any one of the acalephs, especially one of the larger species, having a jellylike appearance.
- What is jellyfish in Hindi?
- Jellyfish in Hindi is जेलिफ़िश (jelifiś), गिजगिजिया (gijgijiyā). See Jellyfish meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is jellyfish?
- Jellyfish is a noun.
- How do you pronounce jellyfish?
- Jellyfish is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɛliˌfɪʃ/.
- What is the plural of jellyfish?
- The plural of jellyfish is jellyfish.
Words near jellyfish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jellyfish (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: en-us-jellyfish.ogg.
Cite this entry: “jellyfish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jellyfish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.