dorsal fin
noun
Simple meaning
A fin located on the backs of fish and some marine mammals.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dawrsuhlfinSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɔɹsəlˈfɪn
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A fin located on the backs of fish and some marine mammals.
Unpaired median fin on the backs of fishes and some other aquatic vertebrates that help to maintain balance
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A fin located on the backs of fish and some marine mammals.
Used this way, dorsal fin 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
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.