Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Cuttlefish |
CuttlefishNoun1. Ten-armed oval-bodied cephalopod with narrow fins as long as the body and a large calcareous internal shell. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "cuttlefish" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Synonym: CuttlefishSynonym: cuttle (n). (additional references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The cuttlefish is a marine cephalopod, a small relative of squids and nautilus. It is caught for food, though squid is more popular.
(Larger image) |
The cuttlefish makes up the genus Sepia. It has an internal shell, large eyes, and ten arms furnished with denticulated suckers, by means of which it secures its prey. The name is sometimes applied to dibranchiate cephalopods generally.
Cuttlefish are probably best known today for the shoehorn shaped piece of tough material given to parakeets as a bill-sharpener. Called the cuttlebone, it is composed of calcium carbonate and is porous to provide the cuttlefish with buoyancy.
Cuttlefish are sometimes called the chameleon of the sea because of their remarkable ability to rapidly alter their skin color. Their skin flashes a fast-changing pattern as communication to other individual of the same species, as well as serving as camoflague from predators.
Cuttlefish have ink, like squids. This ink was formerly an important dye, called sepia. Sepia is a name for the cuttlefish. Today artificial dyes have replaced natural sepia.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Cuttlefish."
Crosswords: Cuttlefish |
| English words defined with "cuttlefish": Acetabuliferous ♦ Cephalopoda, class Cephalopoda ♦ Dibranchia, Dibranchiata ♦ ink, Inkfish ♦ Melain ♦ Osselet ♦ Sepiostare, subclass Dibranchia, subclass Dibranchiata. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "cuttlefish": Ammonites ♦ Misnomers. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "cuttlefish": Sepia. (references) |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Panoramic photograph of the ship moored at Bouy 19, San Diego harbor, California, in 1940, with eleven submarines alongside. Submarines are (from left to right): Salmon (SS-182); Seal (SS-183); Stingray (SS-186); Perch (SS-176); Pollack (SS-180); Cachalot (SS-170); Cuttlefish (SS-171); Skipjack (SS-184); Sturgeon (SS-187); Snapper (SS-185) and Sargo (SS-188). SS-182 through SS-187 were members of Submarine Division 15, commanded by R.W. Christie. USS Richmond (CL-9), flagship of the Submarine Force, is in the right distance. Credit: NAVY. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Cuttlefish" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Cuttlefish" is used about 15 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 15 | 90,616 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
cuttlefish | 78 |
cuttlefish picture | 4 |
cuttlefish video | 3 |
cuttlefish recipe | 3 |
cuttlefish ink | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "cuttlefish"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | sepje. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | صبيدج حيوان بحري هلامي, الحبار حيوان بحري هلامي. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | сепия (sepia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 魷 , 乌贼 (squid, squids). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cornish | padel-ynkyn. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | sépie obecná. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | sepiablæksprutte (common cuttlefish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | inktvis (sepia), gewone zeekat (common cuttlefish), gewone inktvis (common cuttlefish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | سپیداچ . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | yleinen mustekala (common cuttlefish), sepia (common cuttlefish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | seiche (Cuttle). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | tintenfisch (devil fish, octopus, sepia, squid, squids). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | σουπιά (sepia, squid). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | "יו ון (ink fish, squid), "' ""יו (squid). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | tintahal (calamary, Cuttle, polyp, sepia, squid). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | seppia (squid). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 鯣 , 烏賊 (squid), "烏賊 (squid), 墨魚 (squid). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | するめ, いか (and downward, below, catabolic, catabolism, clothes rack, dissimilation, doctor, less than, medical department, medical science, not exceeding, squid, the following, the rest, under, up to), "ういか (squid). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | peie-vroghe, peie vreinn (calamary, fetid chamomile, squid), eeast y vraain-olley. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | uttlefishcay choco vulgar (common cuttlefish), choco (sitting), lula (cuttle, sepia, squid). (various references) sepie (sound). (various references) каракатица (cuttle-fish, devilfish). (various references) sipa (cuttle, sepia). (various references) calamar (sepia, squib, squid), sepia común (common cuttlefish), jibia (common cuttlefish). (various references) bläckfisk (devilfish, octopus, poulpe, squid). (various references) supya, mürekkepbalığı (sepia, squid). (various references) каракатиця (devil fish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | polypus, sepia, Sepia officinalis, Sepia officinalis (Linnaeus,1758), sepiam, sepium. (various references) |
| Italian | 900-Modern | seppia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "cuttlefish": cuttlefishes. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "cuttlefish" (pronounced ku"tulfi'sh) |
| 5 | -u l f i' sh | Angelfish, needlefish. |
| 4 | -l f i' sh | dealfish, sailfish, selfish, shellfish. |
| 3 | -f i' sh | catfish, crawfish, dogfish, flatfish, goldfish, goosefish, hagfish, jellyfish, jewfish, lungfish, pipefish, redfish, starfish, sunfish, swordfish, whitefish. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-f-h-i-l-s-t-t-u" | |
-2 letters: chestful, cuittles, fitchets, flitches, flutiest. | |
-3 letters: chutist, cuittle, cultish, cultist, cutlets, cutties, cuttles, filches, fitches, fitchet, flutist, leftish, leftist, lithest, luetics, scuttle, shuttle, sulfite, thistle. | |
-4 letters: chiefs, chiels, chiles, chisel, chutes, clefts, clifts, culets, cutest, cuties, cutlet, cuttle, elfish, ethics, fetich, fetish, fiches, fichus, filets, filths, fletch, fliest, flitch, flites, flutes, fusile, fustic. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-f-h-i-l-s-t-t-u" | |
+2 letters: cuttlefishes. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
