sockeye

British

/ ˈsɒkˌaɪ /

noun

Also called: red salmon. a Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, having red flesh and valued as a food fish

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of sockeye

by folk etymology from Salishan sukkegh

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:

sockeye

In the summer, the area is thronged by fishermen drawn to Bristol Bay for the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

Whilst bears are generally solitary, this one was heading to feast with others on the glut of sockeye salmon migrating upriver from the Pacific to their origin lake to spawn.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2025

All Atlantic salmon, basa, halibut, mackerel, sockeye salmon and Pacific white shrimp were as advertised.

From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2024

The cans, set aside to monitor packaging integrity over time, contained chum, coho, pink, and sockeye salmon caught in the Gulf of Alaska and Bristol Bay from 1979 to 2021.

From Science Magazine ● May 7, 2024

The others, sockeye, humpback, cohoe, dog-salmon and masu, are smaller and of less interest to the angler, though some of them have great commercial value.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 by Various

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023