herring

American  

[her-ing] / ˈhɛr ɪŋ /

noun

herring, plural herrings plural

1. an important food fish, Clupea harengus harengus, found in enormous shoals in the North Atlantic.

2. a similar fish, Clupea harengus pallasii, of the North Pacific.

3. any fish of the family Clupeidae, including herrings, shads, and sardines.

4. any of various fishes resembling the herring but of unrelated families.

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herring British  

/ ˈhɛrɪŋ /

noun

1. any marine soft-finned teleost fish of the family Clupeidae, esp Clupea harengus, an important food fish of northern seas, having an elongated body covered, except in the head region, with large fragile silvery scales

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herring Idioms  

1. see dead as a doornail (herring); red herring.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• herringlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• herring
  plural
• herrings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of herring

before 900; Middle English hering, Old English hǣring; cognate with German Häring

Explanation

A herring is a small, silver fish. Most herring that's caught for food is prepared by being smoked, salted, or pickled. The majority of herring is caught in the Atlantic, though the fish is found in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. Because it's very high in the famously healthy Omega-3 fats, herring is considered a healthful fish for people to eat. Herrings is also used as bait for catching larger fish. Although the source of the word herring is uncertain, many experts see a link to the Old English har, or "gray."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

herring herrings

She loved eating herring and working with the “wonderful” Sonia Gaskell, but it wasn’t worth being separated from Svetlana.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

Hard, however, because the claim is a red herring.

From Slate ● May 26, 2026

Grey seals typically feed on fish such as sand eels, cod and herring, as well as squid and crustaceans.

From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2026

Cardenas, noting that all the contributions he receives from those who come before the board are fully disclosed, calls the issue a red herring.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025

I crossed to join them, like a cat who smells herring.

From "Seedfolks" by Paul Fleischman

Meanwhile, the audience is being thrown enough red herrings to be barking like seals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026

More broadly, he cautions, many antibodies will prove to be red herrings that have nothing to do with disease processes.

From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2024

“The pace is quick, the red herrings are plentiful, and Annie’s growth from timid wannabe writer to confident sleuth is beautifully rendered,” reads a Publishers Weekly review.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 13, 2024

“It was a real mystery they constructed and a lot of red herrings and a lot to follow,” he says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2024

Every day he’d bring home three herrings and a loaf of bread — but sometimes the herrings had been dead so long we couldn’t eat ’em.

From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz