mullet

¹ American  

[muhl-it] / ˈmʌl ɪt /

noun

mullets plural

1. any of several marine or freshwater, usually gray fishes of the family Mugilidae, having a nearly cylindrical body.

2. a goatfish.

3. a sucker, especially of the genus Moxostoma.

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mullet ² American  

[muhl-it] / ˈmʌl ɪt /

Also molet

noun

Heraldry.

1. a starlike charge having five points unless a greater number is specified, used especially as the cadency mark of a third son.

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mullet ³ American  

[muhl-it] / ˈmʌl ɪt /

noun

1. a hairstyle in which the hair is short in the front and at the sides of the head, and longer in the back.

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mullet ¹ British  

/ ˈmʌlɪt /

noun

1. any of various teleost food fishes belonging to the families Mugilidae (grey mullet) or Mullidae (red mullet) See also grey mullet red mullet

2. the US name for grey mullet

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mullet ² British  

/ ˈmʌlɪt /

noun

1. a hairstyle in which the hair is short at the top and long at the back

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Etymology

Origin of mullet¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English molet, mulet, melet, from Old French mulet “red mullet,” from Latin mullus “red mullet,” from Greek mýllos, a kind of unidentified fish ; see -et

Origin of mullet²

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English molet(te), from Old French molete “rowel of a spur,” equivalent to mole “millstone” ( French meule ) + -ette diminutive suffix; see -ette

Origin of mullet³

First recorded in 1990–95; perhaps by shortening of mullethead “blockhead, fool”; popularized and probably coined by U.S. hip-hop group the Beastie Boys

Explanation

Business in the front; party in the back. The mullet is a popular men's hairstyle from the 1980s, which is short on the sides and long in the back. For seven hundred years, mullet has referred to a fish, but since 1994 it has taken off as a way to describe a hairstyle. For anyone who lived through the 1980s, it can be hard to believe that the word mullet was not circulating as a haircut descriptor during the decade when the haircuts were popular. But no reference to mullet as a hairstyle appeared in print before the 1994 Beastie Boys 1994 song "Mullet Head" dubbed it "a way of life."

Example Sentences

“Twenty-five-year-old mullet man says he can control the weather by emitting heavy metals into the clouds above you,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025

It was very all those days of, ‘oh my God, look at his hair. He’s got a mullet.’

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 20, 2025

Christian Morris, a pansexual, nonbinary artist from Inglewood, attended his first Simon Says in March dressed in a tiger stripe suit, blond mullet wig and Aladdin Sane-inspired lightning bolt face makeup.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2025

Last year, the pūteketeke won the competition after comedian John Oliver threw his weight behind it, launching a campaign that involved him dressing up as the bird, complete with a striking burnt-orange mullet.

From BBC • Sep. 16, 2024

Terror hit Razi like a ton of mullet slapped on the beach.

From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook