cuttlefish
Americannoun
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cuttlefish,
plural
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cuttlefishes
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cuttlefish
1400–50; late Middle English codel, Old English cudele cuttlefish + fish
Vocabulary lists containing cuttlefish
Marine Biology - Middle School
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Marine Biology - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
"While it appears likely the algal bloom has impacted cuttlefish numbers, researchers are working to determine whether this contributed to the reduced population or was just one of the potential impacts."
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Crucially, adult cuttlefish only live about 12 to 18 months, Katz said, "so the success of one breeding season is going to determine the population next year".
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
"This year, they were all really skittish... hiding under rocks. Because there's so few cuttlefish hanging out at the moment, they don't have strength in numbers."
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
This structure varies widely, from the rounded cuttlebone in cuttlefish to the thin, blade-like gladius in many squid, as well as the spiral shell of the ram's horn squid.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 1, 2026
The animal that produces this shell belongs to the octopus, or cuttlefish, family.
From Beautiful Shells of New Zealand An Illustrated Work for Amateur Collectors of New Zealand Marine Shells, with Directions for Collecting and Cleaning them by E. G. B. Moss
Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and his colleagues recently discovered that cuttlefishes actively express opsin genes throughout their skin, particularly in their fins and underbellies.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 20, 2012
Presumably the octopus and cuttlefish employ the same method of self-defense; they are not the only ones: Extremely sly and subtle fishes Are octopi or cuttlefishes.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is certain, for instance, that he was acquainted with the very peculiar mode of propagation of the cuttlefishes, or cephalopods, in which a yelk-sac hangs out of the mouth of the foetus.
From The Evolution of Man — Volume 1 by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
The cuttlefishes are molluscs and may be regarded as the highest of the backboneless or Invertebrate animals.
From The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told by J. Arthur Thomson
In some mollusks, as the cuttlefishes, it is internal, or concealed by the mantle.
From The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary Section S by Project Gutenberg
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.
