starfish
/ˈstɑː(ɹ)fɪʃ/
starfish noun: any of various echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.
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Noun
starfish (plural starfishes or starfish)
- Any of various echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.
- Near-synonym: Asteroidea
- Any many-armed or tentacled sea invertebrate, whether cnidarian, echinoderm, or cephalopod.
- But the largest of the star-fish kind is that sea monster called kruken, kraken or krabben. [...] As this enormous sea-animal in all probability may be reckoned of the polype, or of the star-fish, kind, it seems that the parts which are seen rising at its pleasure, and are called arms, are properly...1755, Erik Pontoppidan, translated by Isaac Kimbler, Explanation of the Plate of Uncommon Star Fish, Extracted from the Natural History of Norway
- A woman (or, less commonly, a gay man) who reluctantly takes part in sexual intercourse, and lies on the back while spreading the limbs.
- The anus.
- Hands separated my ass cheeks while some pervert rimmed my puckered brown starfish.2021, Sophie Palmer, Hot Wife: Collection of Explicit Erotic Short Stories
- Synonyms:
- chocolate starfish
Verb
starfish (third-person singular simple present starfishes, present participle starfishing, simple past and past participle starfished)
- To assume a splayed-out shape, like that of a starfish.
- "Oh you damn bastard, why won't you let anybody love you," and then, before I could stop her, she threw herself between us and the glowing suitcase, starfishing in the blaze of light as he blew up.1981, Kit Reed, Magic Time, page 229
- The freckle on her eye starfished out and the sun began to move over her face like it does below the surface of water.2020, Becky Manawatu, Auē, page 95
- While floating on water
- To form into a splayed-out shape, like that of a starfish.
- The sea roared up her nostrils, tunnelled into her ears, and flung her forward, then back, the current pulling her fingers apart, starfishing her hands.2011, Polly Williams, It Happened One Summer
starfish meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
starfish in Hindi
- various echinoderms
- तारा मछली tārā machlī
starfish in Tamil
- நட்சத்திரமீன், விண்மீன் உயிரி
starfish in Marathi
- स्टारफिश, तारामृग, स्टारफिशला
starfish in Urdu
- سٹار فش, اسٹار فش
More languagesFewer languages
- starfish in Bengali
- তারামাছ taramach
- starfish in Telugu
- స్టార్ ఫిష్, నక్షత్ర చేపలు, స్టార్ఫిష్
- starfish in Malayalam
- സ്റ്റാർഫിഷ്, നക്ഷത്രമത്സ്യം, നക്ഷത്ര മത്സ്യം
- starfish in Kannada
- ಸ್ಟಾರ್ ಫಿಷ್, ಸ್ಟಾರ್ಫಿಶ್, ಸ್ಟಾರ್ಫಿಷ್
- starfish in Punjabi
- ਸਟਾਰਫਿਸ਼, ਸਟਾਰ ਫਿਸ਼
- starfish in Gujarati
- સ્ટારફિશ, સ્ટારફીશ, સ્ટાર ફિશ
- starfish in Odia
- ଷ୍ଟାରଫିଶ, ଷ୍ଟାରଫିଶ୍, ଷ୍ଟାର୍ଫିଶ୍
- starfish in Sanskrit
- तारामीन tārāmīna
- starfish in Assamese
- তৰামাছ toramas
- starfish in Nepali
- स्टारफिश, स्टार फिश
- starfish in Tagalog
- isdambituin, bituin-dagat
- starfish in Arabic
- نَجْمَةُ اَلْبَحْرِ najmatu l-baḥri
- starfish in Malay
- tapak sulaiman
- starfish in Indonesian
- bintang laut, tapak-tapak
- starfish in Thai
- ดาวทะเล daao-tá-lee, ปลาดาว bplaa-daao
- starfish in Vietnamese
- sao biển
- starfish in Myanmar
- ရေလက်ဝါး relak-wa:, ကြယ်ငါး krai-nga:
- Dzongkha
- སྐར་ཉ skar nya
Examples of starfish in a sentence
- They peeked into the tidepool and found starfish and anemones.
- A starfish has radial symmetry; a butterfly does not.
- The adambulacral ossicles of the starfish.
Synonyms of starfish
Forms of starfish
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | starfishes |
| plural | starfish |
| alternative form (archaic) | star-fish |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | starfishes |
| present participle | starfishing |
| past participle | starfished |
| past | starfished |
Origin of starfish
From star + fish.
Words formed from starfish
Phrases with starfish
Questions about starfish
- What does starfish mean?
- Starfish means any of various echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.
- What is starfish in Hindi?
- Starfish in Hindi is तारा मछली (tārā machlī). See Starfish meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is starfish?
- Starfish can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce starfish?
- Starfish is pronounced /ˈstɑː(ɹ)fɪʃ/.
- What is the plural of starfish?
- The plural of starfish is starfishes.
Words near starfish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: starfish (page history and authors); starfish (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); starfish (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); starfish (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); starfish (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); starfish (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); starfish (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); starfish (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); starfish (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); starfish (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); starfish (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-us-starfish.ogg.
Cite this entry: “starfish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/starfish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.