lungfish

American  

[luhng-fish] / ˈlʌŋˌfɪʃ /

noun

lungfish, plural lungfishes plural

1. any of various slender, air-breathing fishes of the order (or subclass) Dipnoi, of rivers and lakes in Africa, South America, and Australia, having a lunglike air bladder as well as gills and growing to a length of 3 to 6 feet (0.9 to 1.8 meters).

---

lungfish British  

/ ˈlʌŋˌfɪʃ /

noun

1. any freshwater bony fish of the subclass Dipnoi, having an air-breathing lung, fleshy paired fins, and an elongated body. The only living species are those of the genera Lepidosiren of South America, Protopterus of Africa, and Neoceratodus of Australia

---

lungfish Scientific  

/ lŭng′fĭsh′ /

1. Any of several tropical freshwater fish of the order or subclass Dipnoi that, in addition to having gills, have lunglike organs for breathing air. Lungfish have a long, narrow body, and certain species can survive periods of drought inside a mucus-lined cocoon in the mud. The lungfish and the coelacanths are the only living lobe-finned fishes.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• lungfish
  plural
• lungfishes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of lungfish

First recorded in 1880–85; lung + fish

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lungfish lungfishes

"Using high-tech scanning, this time we were able to create comprehensive new digital images of the external and internal cranium, showcasing the complexity of the brain cavity of this fascinating lungfish," she says.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2026

Seeking to learn about the evolutionary origins of acoustic communication in vertebrates, the scientists recorded 53 species from four major clades — turtles, tuatara, caecilians and lungfish — to analyze what they heard.

From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2022

He also wants to compare the sounds of land vertebrate and lungfish with those of other fish to see whether the acoustic evolutionary tree extends even further back in time.

From Science Magazine ● Oct. 25, 2022

The Australian lungfish resides at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and is somewhere around 90 years old, The Associated Press reports.

From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2022

In certain swampy regions these lungfish swim freely in the water of the marshes.

From The Meaning of Evolution by Schmucker, Samuel Christian

In the animal kingdom, some of the largest genomes include certain lungfishes and salamander at about 120 billion base pairs.

From BBC ● May 31, 2024

Living members of this clade include the less-familiar lungfishes and coelacanths.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

Saint-Hilaire’s discovery caused a bit of a stir throughout the scientific world as the fish was thought to be one of the extinct lobe-finned fishes, which are today represented by the coelacanths and air-breathing lungfishes.

From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2014

Because the flippers seem to have a stiffening rib that runs along the midline, they are, with the possible exception of lungfishes, unlike those of most other aquatic vertebrates.

From Scientific American ● Jul. 10, 2013

Living members of lobe-finned fishes include the less familiar lungfishes and coelacanth.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 25, 2013