tilapia
/tɪˈlɑːpiə/US/təˈlɑːpiə/
tilapia noun: any of various edible fish, formerly species of the genus Tilapia, but now placed in other cichlid genera (such as Oreochromis), native to Africa and the Middle East but cultivated worldwide.
Noun
tilapia (plural tilapias or tilapia)
- Any of various edible fish, formerly species of the genus Tilapia, but now placed in other cichlid genera (such as Oreochromis), native to Africa and the Middle East but cultivated worldwide.
- Well I dined last night with Scarface Ron
On tilapia fishcakes and fried black swan.2006, Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan, Bottom of the World
- Synonyms:
- St. Peter's fish
- Well I dined last night with Scarface Ron
- A fishy (resembling a cisgender woman) drag queen; a drag queen who could pass for a woman, as opposed to one who is exaggeratedly feminine.
- Vietnamese tilapia Plastique Tiara was at the forefront of one of Drag Race's most controversial eliminations earlier this year. Although the Texan performer and biological woman was leaving us gooped week-after-week with her runways, she was – spoiler alert! – eliminated in eighth place after...2019 June 13, Sam Damshenas, “Drag Race star Plastique Tiara wants to be a "pioneer" for the queer Asian community”, in Gay Times, London: Gay Times Ltd, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on...
tilapia meaning in Tamil, Tagalog and Arabic
tilapia in Tamil
- காளான், துலாபி மீன்
tilapia in Tagalog
- any fish of the genus Tilapia
- tilapya
tilapia in Arabic
- any fish of the genus Tilapia
- بُلْطِيّ bulṭiyy
Synonyms of tilapia
Forms of tilapia
| plural | tilapias |
|---|---|
| plural | tilapia |
Origin of tilapia
Learned borrowing from taxonomic name Tilapia, from Tswana tlhapi (“fish”). The drag race slang usage is a reference to the comment by Gia Gunn on entering Ru Paul's Drag Race (season 6) "Just landed like fresh tilapia".
Words formed from tilapia
- banded tilapia
- blackchin tilapia
- blackfin tilapia
- black tilapia
- blue tilapia
- Graham's tilapia
- Guinean tilapia
- kariba tilapia
- longfin tilapia
- magadi tilapia
- mango tilapia
- Manyara tilapia
- Mozambique tilapia
- Nile tilapia
- Okavango tilapia
- Otjikoto tilapia
- redbelly tilapia
- redbreast tilapia
- Singida tilapia
- spotted tilapia
- threespot tilapia
- Wami tilapia
- Zill's tilapia
Questions about tilapia
- What does tilapia mean?
- Tilapia means any of various edible fish, formerly species of the genus Tilapia, but now placed in other cichlid genera (such as Oreochromis), native to Africa and the Middle East but cultivated worldwide.
- What is tilapia in Tamil?
- Tilapia in Tamil is காளான், துலாபி மீன். See Tilapia meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is tilapia?
- Tilapia is a noun.
- How do you pronounce tilapia?
- Tilapia is pronounced /təˈlɑːpiə/ (US).
- What is the plural of tilapia?
- The plural of tilapia is tilapias.
Words near tilapia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tilapia (page history and authors); tilapia (Tamil Wiktionary) (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-tilapia.wav.
Cite this entry: “tilapia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tilapia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.