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• chinook salmon
  chinook salmon

  noun

  a large salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, found in the North Pacific Ocean.
• Chinook salmon
  Chinook salmon

  noun

  a Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, valued as a food fish

chinook salmon

American  

[shi-nook sam-uhn, -nook, chi-] / ʃɪˈnʊk ˈsæm ən, -ˈnuk, tʃɪ- /

noun

1. a large salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, found in the North Pacific Ocean.

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Chinook salmon British  

noun

1. Also called: quinnat salmon.   king salmon.  a Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, valued as a food fish

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Etymology

Origin of chinook salmon

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chinook salmon Chinook salmon

Each summer in July, Greenberg helps organize an annual snorkel survey in which dozens of volunteers swim along the river and count the number of spring-run chinook salmon, as well as summer steelhead.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2024

The fishing season for fall-run chinook salmon would normally run from about May to October.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2024

Recent research has found 6PPD-quinone to be similarly lethal to other fish species, including brook trout, rainbow trout, chinook salmon, and white-spotted char.

From Slate ● Nov. 9, 2023

Southern resident killer whales eat chinook salmon, which are also endangered due to habitat degradation and other threats.

From National Geographic ● Oct. 30, 2023

He and Harry Secor had worked together to stalk the giant chinook salmon of the Dungeness River.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

The plan also includes limits on the total number of fall-run Chinook salmon that may be caught during the season.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2026

A sharp decline in the Chinook salmon population led to the ban on commercial fishing in 2023, 2024 and 2025, the longest shutdown in state history.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2026

We’re not like the Chinook salmon that seek out upriver spawning zones or feline species that go into heat each spring and summer.

From Salon ● Dec. 19, 2025

Populations of Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, Delta smelt and other species have been declining.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025

Then we hit a floating log with a jar that ran through our system, and then, white-bellied, open-gilled, spun by a dead salmon—a lordly twenty-pound Chinook salmon who had perished in his pride.

From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Kipling, Rudyard