piranha
Americannoun
-
piranhas,
plural
-
piranha
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of piranha
1865–70; < Portuguese < Tupi
Explanation
A piranha is a fish with famously sharp teeth. Don't go swimming in certain South American rivers if you want to avoid piranhas! These freshwater fish are terrifyingly described as "voraciously carnivorous," meaning they eat meat with great enthusiasm. Humans aren't often bitten by piranhas, but it does happen in some parts of South America. You also can't buy a piranha as a pet in many parts of the world — and if you do, it's best not to get two of them, since the weaker fish is often killed by the stronger one.
Vocabulary lists containing piranha
English Words Derived from Indigenous Languages of the Americas
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Amazing Animals, List 1
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South America - Middle School
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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:
TalkTV broadcaster Mark Dolan noted how the man known as the "piranha of the airwaves" had "reinvented the phone-in format in the UK - with stunning success".
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2025
As Richard, the deceased father of Jenna Ortega’s Astrid Deetz, Santiago Cabrera got a combination of prosthetics and makeup for the puppet piranha fish biting at his face, neck and body.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2024
White once said her character Sue Ann Nivens in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” could be “icky-sweet” but was “really a piranha type.”
From Washington Times ● Dec. 31, 2021
It becomes a big floaty bullfight, or — with enough players — a piranha feeding frenzy.
From The Verge ● Oct. 14, 2021
Not even Rondon, who was missing a little toe after a piranha bit it off.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
In 2024, the street artist created an animal trail around the capital with pieces featuring a goat, elephants, a gorilla, monkeys, piranhas, a rhino and pelicans among other animals.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026
Corman was the executive producer of this horror film about a mass of flesh-eating piranhas infesting a river.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2024
Despite their size, swarms of these insects can cause considerable damage by shredding plant life to bits like ravenous piranhas..
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2024
We paddled through flooded forests looking for anacondas and fished for piranhas along a small creek.
From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2023
The first is missing the hyphen that bolts together the pieces of the compound word that was supposed to remind readers of the problem with piranhas, man-eating.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
