Word.ws English Dictionary

sayori

sayori noun: a slender, surface-dwelling fish of the species Hyporhamphus sajori in the halfbeak family, native to coastal waters influenced by warm currents.

sayori: a slender, surface-dwelling fish of the species Hyporhamphus sajori in the halfbeak family, native...
Image: Kwun H, Park J, Kim H, Kim J, Park H (2017) Checklist of, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sayori (plural sayori)

  1. A slender, surface-dwelling fish of the species Hyporhamphus sajori in the halfbeak family, native to coastal waters influenced by warm currents.
    • Sashimi came next. It contained two kinds of what our waitress called puffy tuna. It was toro, the rich, pink, most prized part of the fish, surrounded by tile fish and tiny little strips of a seasonal specialty fish called sayori.1995 November 10, Ruth Reichl, “Restaurants”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 May 2015
    • Earlier in the meal, I especially enjoyed the fresh fish course, an arrangement of delicate, silvery sayori with plump, rosy clams called aoyagi, which are briny but sweet.1996 August 25, Elizabeth Andoh, “For Japan’s Female Chefs, More Than Home Fires”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26...

Proper noun capitalized: Sayori

Sayori

  1. A transliteration of the Japanese female given name 小夜里.
    • “It may be hard for Americans to understand,” said Sayori Iwata, a Mitsukoshi spokeswoman, “but in Japan, it’s considered beautiful to sacrifice yourself for the service of others.”1995 December 13, Nicholas D[onabet] Kristof, “Tokyo Journal: Japan’s Feminine Falsetto Falls Right Out of Favor”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC...
    • Sushi chef Niki Nakayama and her cousin Sayori Onozuka, who handles the hot dishes and assists with sushi, trained in Japan at an inn owned by Onozuka’s parents.2003 September 24, Barbara Hansen, “Sushi, rich in creativity”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2026

Examples of sayori in a sentence

  • “Beautiful,” Kretchmar said, identifying the fish as sayori and amadai.2018 June 7, Irina Aleksander, “[Love City: 24 Hours of Romance, Lust and Heartache in New York] Gramercy Tavern, Manhattan”, in The New...
  • We tried a lot of seasonal fish like sayori, silverfish and some squid.2025 April 29, Kenji Hall, quoting Sonoko Sakai, “[The 25 Essential Seafood Dishes to Eat in Tokyo] 22. The Sushi at Osushi Isobe”, in T...

Synonyms of sayori

Forms of sayori

pluralsayori

Origin of sayori

Transliteration of Japanese 細魚 /針魚 (sayori, literally “slender/needle fish”).

Transliteration of Japanese 小夜里 (Sayori).

Words formed from sayori

Questions about sayori

What does sayori mean?
Sayori means a slender, surface-dwelling fish of the species Hyporhamphus sajori in the halfbeak family, native to coastal waters influenced by warm currents.
How do you use sayori in a sentence?
“Beautiful,” Kretchmar said, identifying the fish as sayori and amadai.
What part of speech is sayori?
Sayori can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of sayori?
The plural of sayori is sayori.

Words near sayori in the dictionary

  1. sayon
  2. sayonara
  3. sayonaras
  4. Sayonika
  5. sayons
  6. sayori
  7. Sayosuki
  8. Saypol
  9. Sayre
  10. Sayres
  11. Sayreville

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sayori (page history and authors); Sayori (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.

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