Word.ws English Dictionary

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.

shellfish: a fisheries and colloquial term for an aquatic invertebrate having an inner or outer shell, such as...
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Noun

shellfish (countable and uncountable, plural shellfish or shellfishes)

  1. A fisheries and colloquial term for an aquatic invertebrate having an inner or outer shell, such as a mollusc or crustacean, especially when edible.
  2. 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.

All 15 example sentences with shellfish

Forms of shellfish

pluralshellfish
pluralshellfishes

Plural of shellfish: shellfish or 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

  1. Shelleyan
  2. Shelleyana
  3. Shelleyesque
  4. shellfire
  5. shellfires
  6. shellfish
  7. shellfisher
  8. shellfisheries
  9. shellfisherman
  10. shellfishermen
  11. shellfishers

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.