shellfish
Syllables: shell·fish/ˈʃɛl.fɪʃ/
shellfish noun: a fisheries and colloquial term for an aquatic invertebrate having an inner or outer shell, such as a mollusc or crustacean, especially when edible.

Noun
shellfish (countable and uncountable, plural shellfish or shellfishes)
- A fisheries and colloquial term for an aquatic invertebrate having an inner or outer shell, such as a mollusc or crustacean, especially when edible.
- A culinary and nutritional term for several groups of non-piscine, non-tetrapod, aquatic animals that are used as a food source. The term often exclusively refers to edible aquatic crustaceans, bivalve mollusks and cephalopod mollusks; but sometimes echinoderms may be included as well.
shellfish meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
shellfish in Hindi
- aquatic food that has a shell
- कस्तूरा kastūrā
shellfish in Tamil
- ஷெல்ஃபிஷ்
shellfish in Marathi
- शेलफिश, शॅल्फिश
shellfish in Urdu
- شیلفش, خول مچھلی, شیل فش
More languagesFewer languages
- shellfish in Bengali
- শেলফিশ śelphiś
- shellfish in Telugu
- షెల్ ఫిష్, షెల్ఫిష్
- shellfish in Malayalam
- കക്കാപ്രാണിവർഗ്ഗം, ശുക്തിമത്സ്യം, ഓടുള്ള ജലപ്രാണി, തോടുള്ള കക്കാപ്രാണി വർഗ്ഗം
- shellfish in Kannada
- ಚಿಪ್ಪು ಮೀನು cippu mīnu
- shellfish in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ੈੱਲਫਿਸ਼
- shellfish in Gujarati
- શેલફિશ
- shellfish in Odia
- ଶେଲ୍ଫିଶ୍, ଶେଲ୍ ମାଛ, ଶେଲଫିଶ୍
- shellfish in Sinhala
- බෙල්ලා bellā
- shellfish in Arabic
- مَحَار maḥār
- shellfish in Malay
- kerang, kerang-kerangan
- shellfish in Indonesian
- kerang
- shellfish in Persian
- صدفماهی sadaf-mâhi
- shellfish in Thai
- หอย hɔ̌i
- shellfish in Vietnamese
- ốc
- shellfish in Myanmar
- ခရု hka.ru.
Examples of shellfish in a sentence
- The Old Testament says that eating shellfish is a sin.
- Some leaves, and certain organs in shellfish, are dolabriform.
- Most shellfish lose their toxins almost completely within four to six weeks after a gonyaulax outbreak.
Forms of shellfish
| plural | shellfish |
|---|---|
| plural | shellfishes |
Origin of shellfish
Inherited from Middle English schellefyssch, from Old English sċielfisċ. Equivalent to shell + fish.
Words formed from shellfish
Questions about shellfish
- What does shellfish mean?
- Shellfish means a fisheries and colloquial term for an aquatic invertebrate having an inner or outer shell, such as a mollusc or crustacean, especially when edible.
- What is shellfish in Hindi?
- Shellfish in Hindi is कस्तूरा (kastūrā). See Shellfish meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is shellfish?
- Shellfish is a noun.
- How do you pronounce shellfish?
- Shellfish is pronounced /ˈʃɛl.fɪʃ/.
- What is the plural of shellfish?
- The plural of shellfish is shellfish.
Words near shellfish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shellfish (page history and authors); shellfish (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shellfish (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shellfish (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shellfish (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shellfish (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); shellfish (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shellfish (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shellfish (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); බෙල්ලා (Sinhala) (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-shellfish.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-shellfish.wav.
Cite this entry: “shellfish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shellfish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
