sunfish
Americannoun
plural
sunfish,plural
sunfishes-
the ocean sunfish, Mola mola.
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any of various other fishes of the family Molidae.
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any of several small, brightly colored, spiny-rayed freshwater fishes of the genus Lepomis, of North America, having a deep, compressed body.
noun
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any large plectognath fish of the family Molidae, of temperate and tropical seas, esp Mola mola, which has a large rounded compressed body, long pointed dorsal and anal fins, and a fringelike tail fin
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any of various small predatory North American freshwater percoid fishes of the family Centrarchidae, typically having a compressed brightly coloured body
Etymology
Origin of sunfish
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After the aquarium shut for renovation in December, the sunfish stopped eating jellyfish and started rubbing its body against the tank, the Mainichi Shimbun reported on Monday.
From BBC • Jan. 20, 2025
McNeish, who has examined the fish carcasses since late August, has identified non-native species including bass, sunfish, bullhead catfish and mosquitofish.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 19, 2024
It’s the latest tactic in an ongoing struggle to keep non-native smallmouth bass and green sunfish at bay below the Glen Canyon Dam and to protect a threatened native fish, the humpback chub.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 18, 2023
A sunfish found near the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean weighed as much as an S.U.V.
From New York Times • Oct. 21, 2022
But we were apt to catch sunfish and cat too small to keep.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
