prawn
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
-
any of various small edible marine decapod crustaceans of the genera Palaemon, Penaeus, etc, having a slender flattened body with a long tail and two pairs of pincers
-
informal to attempt deception
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of prawn
1400–50; late Middle English prane, of uncertain origin
Explanation
A prawn is a crustacean that resembles a big shrimp, with long antennae and a shell. When you see prawns on a menu, just imagine large, juicy shrimp. The words shrimp and prawn are used interchangeably so often that the difference between them has blurred. In many English-speaking parts of the world, prawn is the more common term, while North Americans reserve that word for freshwater shrimp (as opposed to ocean shrimp). Prawn is a common name, rather than a scientific one — if you want to sound knowledgable, you can call this animal a decapod crustacean of the sub-order Dendrobranchiata.
Vocabulary lists containing prawn
Something's Fishy: A Fresh Catch of Aquatic Words
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Amazing Animals, A-Z
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Amazing Animals, List 2
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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:
Massara, an Italian restaurant in New York City, even serves a cold pasta: a chilled spaghetti with red prawn and briny, decadent sea urchin.
From Salon ● May 30, 2025
Products like albacore tuna and spot prawn can come from Vancouver, B.C.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2023
Lunch was roast rack of lamb with an Asian-style marinade, prawn tacos with pineapple salsa and a strawberry ginger trifle.
From New York Times ● May 1, 2023
The recipe was later modified by the famous Singaporean chef Hooi Kok Wai, who added eggs and sambal, a concoction made of chilli peppers and prawn paste.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2023
Just as certain dishes—peach melba, prawn cocktail—have managed to spread across continents and survive over time, so some scientific doctrines are successfully disseminated, while others remain firmly tied to their time and place of origin.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
"Everything is there. I was stuck here," he told AFP in Karachi, near the well-known Bengali market where he peddles desiccated fish and prawns to make ends meet for $7 to $9 per day.
From Barron's ● Feb. 23, 2026
“It had sardines, I believe, anchovy, tuna, and prawns on it,” Skimehorn said.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2025
Broiled prawns in a gochujang butter, garlic, and chives were served sizzling hot.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2025
This includes shellfish delicacies such as prawns, lobsters, crabs and crayfish that we both catch wild and farm.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 26, 2024
After a while I removed the faded fiber and added fresh fish and river prawns to the pot.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
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.
