Word.ws English Dictionary

muttonfish

muttonfish noun: any of several Atlantic and Caribbean fishes which are said to taste of mutton, especially a mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis), an ocean pout (Macrozoarces americanus), or an Irish pompano (Diapterus auratus).

Noun

muttonfish (plural muttonfish or muttonfishes)

  1. (US) Any of several Atlantic and Caribbean fishes which are said to taste of mutton, especially a mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis), an ocean pout (Macrozoarces americanus), or an Irish pompano (Diapterus auratus).
  2. (Australia) Any of several edible molluscs of the genus Haliotis; an abalone.
    • Some mornings when the tide was right out we went onto the reef with screwdrivers to prise off abalone, which we called muttonfish.1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador, published 2014, page 28

Forms of muttonfish

pluralmuttonfish
pluralmuttonfishes

Origin of muttonfish

From mutton + fish.

Questions about muttonfish

What does muttonfish mean?
Muttonfish means any of several Atlantic and Caribbean fishes which are said to taste of mutton, especially a mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis), an ocean pout (Macrozoarces americanus), or an Irish pompano (Diapterus auratus).
What part of speech is muttonfish?
Muttonfish is a noun.
What is the plural of muttonfish?
The plural of muttonfish is muttonfish.

Words near muttonfish in the dictionary

  1. muttonbirders
  2. muttonbirding
  3. muttonbirds
  4. muttonchop
  5. muttonchops
  6. muttonfish
  7. muttonfishes
  8. muttongrass
  9. muttonhead
  10. muttonheaded
  11. muttonheads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: muttonfish (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-au-muttonfish.ogg.

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