lungfish

American  

[luhng-fish] / ˈlʌŋˌfɪʃ /

noun

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).

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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

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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.

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• lungfishes
  plural
• lungfish
  plural

Etymology

Origin of lungfish

First recorded in 1880–85; lung + fish

Example Sentences

Research on both living and fossil lungfish provides important anatomical evidence about how tetrapods evolved.

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

Among these fishes were some which bear a great resemblance to a few found in South America, in Africa and Australia to-day, and which we know as lungfish.

From The Meaning of Evolution by Schmucker, Samuel Christian