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crawfish

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Any of different freshwater crustaceans: crayfish.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

krawfish

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɹɔfɪʃ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. (United States, especially Southern US, Louisiana and Texas, Midwest, Western US) Any of various freshwater crustaceans: crayfish.

  2. south africa

    Any of various marine crustaceans, rock lobster; especially Jasus lalandii, the Cape crawfish.

  3. Tiny lobster-like crustaceans usually boiled briefly

  4. Small freshwater decapod crustacean that resembles a lobster

  5. Large edible marine crustacean having a spiny carapace but lacking the large pincers of true lobsters

verb

  1. intransitivecolloquialSouthern US

    To backpedal, desert or withdraw (also used with out).

  2. intransitive

    To fish for crawfish.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (United States, especially Southern US, Louisiana and Texas, Midwest, Western US) Any of various freshwater crustaceans: crayfish.

Used this way, crawfish is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • spiny lobster , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use crawfish

  • “We'll have to crawfish out from meeting with him.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

crawfish tailsboiled crawfishcrawfish festivalred crawfishlive crawfishcrawfish springswamp crawfisheat crawfish

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • crawfish outverbCompound term

    Make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity.

  • sea crawfishnounCompound term

    Large edible marine crustacean having a spiny carapace but lacking the large pincers of true lobsters.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: (United States or especially Southern US

crayfishspiny lobsterRare

verb

Sense: to backpedal or desert

crayfish

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.