soft-finned

[sawft-find, soft-]

adjective

Ichthyology.

1. having fins supported by articulated rays rather than by spines, as a malacopterygian.

soft-finned

adjective

1. (of certain teleost fishes) having fins that are supported by flexible cartilaginous rays See also malacopterygian Compare spiny-finned

Word History and Origins

Origin of soft-finned¹

First recorded in 1765–75

Example Sentences

Having no spines to their fins, the Gadids used, in Cuvierian days, to be associated with the herrings, Salmonids, pike, &c., in the artificially-conceived order of Malacopterygians, or soft-finned bony fishes.

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He placed the sturgeon in his Cartilaginous series; while in his soft-finned order he found a place for the Polypterus of the Nile and the Lepidosteus of the Ohio and St. Lawrence.

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