flatfish

American  

[flat-fish] / ˈflætˌfɪʃ /

noun

• flatfish,
  plural
• flatfishes
  plural

1. any fish of the order Heterosomata (Pleuronectiformes), including the halibut, sole, flounder, etc., having a greatly compressed body and swimming on one side, with both eyes on the upper side in the adult.

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flatfish British  

/ ˈflætˌfɪʃ /

noun

1. any marine spiny-finned fish of the order Heterosomata , including the halibut, plaice, turbot, and sole, all of which (when adult) swim along the sea floor on one side of the body, which is highly compressed and has both eyes on the uppermost side

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• flatfish
  plural
• flatfishes
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of flatfish

First recorded in 1700–10; flat ¹ + fish

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flatfish flatfishes

But other fish — such as Arctic cod, capelin and flatfish — evolved to thrive in this environment, with the cold pool serving as a protective barrier.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2021

Fluke often is confused with flounder, another bottom-dwelling flatfish, and there is not too much of a culinary difference between the two.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 17, 2018

For lunch with Moon, the North Korean delegation was served grilled flatfish, soup with dried fish balls, buckwheat crepes with persimmon sauce and two types of kimchi.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2018

Not a shrimp beside Disney’s whale, but just one more middling flatfish in the seas of the Blue Planet.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 17, 2017

We tasted a "grilled sole" for the first time, and although Hephzy persisted in referring to it as "fried flatfish" we liked the taste.

From Kent Knowles: Quahaug by Joseph Crosby Lincoln

Pulled by a sailboat going with the wind and tide, the trawl raked the seafloor and scared flatfishes like flounder, halibut, and sole into the net.

From Scientific American ● May 24, 2013

The flatfishes have the body flattened, swim on the side, and have eyes on one side, as the flounder, turbot, and halibut.

From The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary Section F, G and H by Project Gutenberg

Other bottom feeders occur in less numbers, the pollock and the cusk perhaps being next in order of importance, with hake and a considerable amount of the various flatfishes in the otter trawls.

From Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of Maine by Walter H. Rich

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