jellyfish

American  

[jel-ee-fish] / ˈdʒɛl iˌfɪʃ /

noun

jellyfish, plural jellyfishes plural

1. any of various marine coelenterates of a soft, gelatinous structure, especially one with an umbrellalike body and long, trailing tentacles; medusa.

2. Informal. a person without strong resolve or stamina; an indecisive or weak person.

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jellyfish British  

/ ˈdʒɛlɪˌfɪʃ /

noun

1. any marine medusoid coelenterate of the class Scyphozoa, having a gelatinous umbrella-shaped body with trailing tentacles

2. any other medusoid coelenterate

3. informal a weak indecisive person

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• jellyfish
  plural
• jellyfishes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of jellyfish

1700–10; 1910–15 jellyfish for def. 2; jelly + fish

Explanation

A jellyfish is a marine animal with long tentacles that hang down from a bell-shaped body. Many jellyfish are nearly transparent. Jellyfish may look like they're made of jelly, but their bodies are actually 95 percent water. These umbrella-shaped creatures look graceful floating in the water, but they collapse into a flat blob on land. Jellyfish don't have organs, just a simple nervous system and three layers including the elastic, jelly-like mesoglea that gives them their name. In the 19th century, it became fairly common to call a weak person a jellyfish, a figurative usage that's still around today.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

jellyfish jellyfishes

Many people are scared of jellyfish due to the fear of painful stings and the creature's unpredictable nature in the water.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

Depending on the type of jellyfish, the stingers may not be sharp enough or long enough to pierce the skin.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

Both Bunney and McLaren added that it is important not to touch a jellyfish when it is washed up on a beach as it can still sting, even when presumed dead.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

"There was one point when every time over a period of two years I was stung by a jellyfish when I was out in the sea," she said.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

A grandmotherly lady who studies jellyfish populations near Seattle.

From "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin

These showed body plans different from any animals alive today, although some seem to be related to worms and jellyfishes.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2018

“We need to clearly acknowledge that jellyfishes and other gelatinous organisms may be a regular prey for a variety of marine predators.”

From National Geographic ● Sep. 15, 2017

Both squishy and elastic, jellyfishes can snap like a rubber band over a short periods of time span and ooze like goo over longer periods.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 24, 2015

Expect giraffes and zebras, but also Komodo dragons, jellyfishes and newts for a dash of originality.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 1, 2013

Brightly colored starfishes, beautiful sea-urchins, strange stationary ascidians, and flower-like sea-anemones, quaint sea-horses, and filmy, fragile jellyfishes and their multiform kin—all seem novel and wonderful as one sees them in their native element.

From A History of Science, Volume 5(of 5) Aspects Of Recent Science by Williams, Henry Smith

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