cuttlefish
Americannoun
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Marine Biology - High School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
Many squid and cuttlefish lineages then expanded into these environments.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 1, 2026
Octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and their cephalopod relatives are masters of camouflage, able to instantly shift their skin color to blend into their surroundings.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 3, 2025
A government review led by Prof Birch in 2021 assessed 300 scientific studies on the sentience of decapods and Cephalopods, which include octopus, squid, and cuttlefish.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2024
In 1778, British explorer Capt. James Cook was welcomed when he anchored off the Hawaiian islands by locals eager to trade cuttlefish, breadfruit and pigs for nails and iron tools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2023
It is very similar to the ordinary cuttlefish, only, of course very much larger.
From With Airship and Submarine A Tale of Adventure by Hodgson, Edward S.
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
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 Thomson, J. Arthur
At one of these we ordered a sea-dinner—crabs, cuttlefishes, soles, and turbots—which we ate at a table in the open air.
From New Italian sketches by Symonds, John Addington
The dolphin is exceedingly voracious, feeding on fish, cuttlefishes and crustaceans.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 6 "Dodwell" to "Drama" by Various
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.
