Word.ws English Dictionary

squaloid

squaloid adjective: characteristic of a shark or dogfish.

Adjective

squaloid (comparative more squaloid, superlative most squaloid)

  1. Characteristic of a shark or dogfish
    • The old man cracked a squaloid smile full of toothblack and breakfast scraps.1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 169

Noun

squaloid (plural squaloids)

  1. Any dogfish (family Squalidae).
    • Several species of squaloids have light-emitting organs, but none can glow as brightly as the monotypical Isistius brasiliensis.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 136

Forms of squaloid

Adjective
comparativemore squaloid
superlativemost squaloid
Noun
pluralsqualoids

Origin of squaloid

From Latin squālus (“a large sea fish; a shark”) + English -oid.

Questions about squaloid

What does squaloid mean?
Squaloid means characteristic of a shark or dogfish.
What part of speech is squaloid?
Squaloid can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near squaloid in the dictionary

  1. squalodons
  2. squalodont
  3. squalodontid
  4. squalodontids
  5. squalodonts
  6. squaloid
  7. squaloids
  8. squalomorph
  9. squalomorphs
  10. squalor
  11. squalorajid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: squaloid (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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