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crayfish

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Small freshwater decapod crustacean that resembles a lobster.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

krayfish

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɹeɪfɪʃ

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. Small freshwater decapod crustacean that resembles a lobster

  2. New EnglandPennsylvaniaUpper Midwestern US

    A freshwater crustacean (family Cambaridae), sometimes used as an inexpensive seafood or as fish bait.

  3. Warm-water lobsters without claws; those from Australia and South Africa usually marketed as frozen tails; caught also in Florida and California

  4. Australia

    A freshwater crayfish (family Parastacidae), such as the gilgie, marron, or yabby.

  5. singapore

    The species Thenus orientalis of the slipper lobster family (Scyllaridae).

  6. AustraliaNew ZealandSouth Africa

    Tiny lobster-like crustaceans usually boiled briefly

verb

  1. To fish for crawfish.

  2. intransitive

    To catch crayfish.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Small freshwater decapod crustacean that resembles a lobster

Used this way, crayfish is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Mild
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.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Small / tiny

crayfish stretchsmall crayfish

Species / rock

crayfish species

Warm

crayfish tails

Other combinations

freshwater crayfishsignal crayfishwater crayfishcrayfish muscle

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • american crayfishnounCompound term

    Common large crayfishes of eastern North America.

  • old world crayfishnounCompound term

    Small crayfish of Europe and Asia and western North America.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: small freshwater decapod crustacean that resembles a lobster

spiny lobsterRare

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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.