prawn
UK/pɹɔːn/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/pɹoːn/
prawn noun: a crustacean of the suborder Dendrobranchiata. Also the alternative form of porn.
Noun
prawn (countable and uncountable, plural prawn or prawns)
- A crustacean of the suborder Dendrobranchiata.
- The aphrodisiac nature of prawns is evident in an epigram by the Greek poet Asclepiades.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 197
- A crustacean, sometimes confused with shrimp.
- Synonym of butterface: A woman with an attractive body but an unattractive face.
- She's a prawn!
- Synonyms:
- butterface
- A fool, an idiot.
- This is utter dribble. I've not read much worse than this in a long time - and he admits he doesn't know - "or so I am told". Get real, you prawn.1999 August 2, Les Brown, “This old "almah" controversy”, in alt.religion.christian (Usenet)
- He didn't say he was accused of that, prawn.2001 February 1, Ned Latham, “Lovesick Puppy Poetry - Volume 1”, in aus.culture.true-blue (Usenet)
Verb
prawn (third-person singular simple present prawns, present participle prawning, simple past and past participle prawned)
- To fish for prawns.
Also used as
prawn is also the alternative form of porn.
prawn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
prawn in Hindi
- large shrimp
- झींगा jhīṅgā
prawn in Tamil
- large shrimp
- இறால் iṟāl
prawn in Urdu
- large shrimp
- جھینگا jhīngā
prawn in Bengali
- large shrimp
- চিংড়ি ciṅṛi, ইঁচা ĩca, ইচলা icola, ইচলি icoli
More languagesFewer languages
- prawn in Telugu
- రొయ్య royya
- prawn in Malayalam
- ചെമ്മീൻ cemmīṉ
- prawn in Kannada
- ಸೀಗಡಿ sīgaḍi
- prawn in Punjabi
- ਝੀਂਗਾ jhīṅgā
- prawn in Odia
- ଚିଙ୍ଗୁଡ଼ି ciṅguṛi
- prawn in Assamese
- মিছা মাছ misa mas, নিচলা মাছ nisola mas
- prawn in Tagalog
- sugpo
- prawn in Arabic
- جَمْبَرِي jambarī, رُوبِيَان rūbiyān
- prawn in Malay
- udang
- prawn in Indonesian
- udang
- prawn in Persian
- میگو meygu
- prawn in Thai
- กุ้ง gûng
- prawn in Vietnamese
- tôm
- prawn in Myanmar
- မျှင် hmyang, ပုစွန် pu.cwan
Examples of prawn in a sentence
- That bucket of raw prawns you left in the sun is a bit on the nose.
- Try using abalone gut, peeled prawns and cunji for bait for the bream and drummer found here.
- Penang-style prawn mee is spicier and is usually served with more pork than Singapore-style prawn mee.
Synonyms of prawn
Forms of prawn
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | prawn |
| plural | prawns |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | prawns |
| present participle | prawning |
| past participle | prawned |
| past | prawned |
Origin of prawn
First attested early 1400s as various Middle English forms prayne, prane, praune, and prawne, which present no clear cognates in languages other than English. The forms suggest a hypothetical Old English form *prægn, where *æg would have evolved into Middle English *ay, but it is unclear if the word is of Germanic origin, from another European language, or loaned from a substrate. In the Isle of Wight, a word prankle ("prawn") is recorded and thought to be related. Century, following Skeat, suggested transposition of an unrecorded Old French *parne, *perne related to Spanish perna (“a flat shellfish”), Old Italian perna and diminutive pernochie, parnocchie, glossed as "shrimps or prawne, fishes" by John Florio, but the OED considers Florio's entry incorrect and the suggested connection semantically and phonologically implausible. Etymology 1, noun sense 3 ("woman with attractive body and unattractive face") is from the idea of discarding the head of a prawn before eating it.
An alternative spelling of pron (pronounced identically with cot-caught merger), which in turn is a corrupted spelling of porn.
Words formed from prawn
- Aesop prawn
- Alaskan prawn
- banana prawn
- come the raw prawn
- common prawn
- deep-sea prawn
- deepwater prawn
- Dublin Bay prawn
- furrowed prawn
- giant tiger prawn
- great northern prawn
- green prawn
- Indian prawn
- king prawn
- kuruma prawn
- lawn prawn
- long-clawed prawn
- mantis prawn
- monsoon river prawn
- mudprawn
- musical prawn
- Oriental river prawn
- Parktown prawn
- pistol prawn
- porn and prawn
- prawn chip
- prawn cocktail
- prawn cocktail offensive
- prawn cracker
- prawn crisp
- prawner
- prawn killer
- prawnlike
- prawn sandwich brigade
- prawn toast
- prawnwich
- prawny
- queen prawn
- river prawn
- royal red prawn
- sandprawn
- school prawn
- snapping prawn
- soldier prawn
- spot prawn
- tiger prawn
Phrases with prawn
Words that rhyme with prawn
Questions about prawn
- What does prawn mean?
- Prawn means a crustacean of the suborder Dendrobranchiata.
- What is prawn in Hindi?
- Prawn in Hindi is झींगा (jhīṅgā). See Prawn meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is prawn?
- Prawn can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce prawn?
- Prawn is pronounced /pɹɔːn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of prawn?
- The plural of prawn is prawn.
Words near prawn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prawn (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-prawn.ogg.
Cite this entry: “prawn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prawn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.