mackerel
Americannoun
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mackerel,
plural
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mackerels
plural
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a food fish, Scomber scombrus, of the North Atlantic, having wavy cross markings on the back.
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any of various similar fishes, as the Atka mackerel.
noun
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a spiny-finned food fish, Scomber scombrus, occurring in northern coastal regions of the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean: family Scombridae. It has a deeply forked tail and a greenish-blue body marked with wavy dark bands on the back Compare Spanish mackerel
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any of various other fishes of the family Scombridae, such as Scomber colias (Spanish mackerel) and S. japonicus (Pacific mackerel)
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mackerel
1250–1300; Middle English < Old French, perhaps same word as Middle French maquerel pimp < Middle Dutch makelare broker (by metathesis), equivalent to makel ( en ) to bring together + -are -er 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Today you could send me out onto the course with a bag containing a pogo stick, a copperhead and a mackerel, and I wouldn’t notice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Judah explained that the Tonga Trench sighting also establishes a new depth record for the entire order of Lamniformes, also known as the mackerel sharks.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026
Tinned fish works beautifully, especially tuna, mackerel or sardines.
From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2026
"We were chasing Spanish mackerel and had one eaten by a pack of six of them, four metres off the edge of the boat," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● May 24, 2026
I caught lots of small fish, mackerel and pollock and cod and flounder, and cleaned ’em, too.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
I stole the idea for the robed mackerels from the so-called decorator crabs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2018
Crispy curried rice with pork skin and coconut, and kua kling, a beef shank curry described as brutally spicy are two options, along with adventures like grilled short mackerels with lotus stems in coconut soup.
From New York Times ● Sep. 5, 2017
Aquaculture species that are most affordable, such as carp, are often not as rich in omega-3 fatty acids as are the wild species currently accessible to impoverished communities, such as sardines and mackerels.
From Nature ● Jun. 14, 2016
According to a 2015 World Wildlife Fund report, some 1,200 marine vertebrate species, including fish like mackerels and tunas, declined by nearly half between 1970 and 2012.
From New York Times ● May 24, 2016
With these mackerels, four salmons, a custom-house officer, and a Norwegian parson, we set off at noon for Christiania.
From Northern Travel Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland by Bayard Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
