cuttlefish
Americannoun
-
cuttlefish,
plural
-
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:
A spokesperson for South Australia's Department of Primary Industries and Regions said cuttlefish populations "naturally fluctuate" depending on environmental conditions.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
His team also tracked adult cuttlefish numbers during the dive survey, and said the dozen or so they saw - when there should have been tens of thousands - appeared to be behaving differently.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
"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
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
Mollusc, Mollusk, mol′usk, n. one of the Mollusca, a large division of invertebrate animals—bivalves or Lamellibranchs, snails or Gasteropods, and cuttlefish or Cephalopods:—pl.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
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
There are clouds of ink in the clear water, for, as Professor Hickson puts it, the cuttlefishes have thrown dust in the eyes of their enemies.
From The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told by J. Arthur Thomson
Also very notable was the abundance of predatory cuttlefishes, the bullies of the ancient seas.
From The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told by J. Arthur Thomson
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.
