stingray
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of stingray
Explanation
Stingrays are sea creatures that are closely related to sharks. If you're snorkeling in the Cayman Islands and see a large, flattened fish with a long tail and eyes on top of its body, you're looking at a stingray. Like their shark cousins, stingrays have cartilage instead of bones; stingrays look completely different from sharks, though. Stingrays' bodies are shaped like a rounded diamond, and their gills are on their underside. Their venomous tails are dangerous, giving them the sting part of their name—but most stingrays are shy and docile, and safe to swim near as long as you don't step on them.
Vocabulary lists containing stingray
Marine Biology - Introductory
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Marine Biology - Middle School
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Marine Biology - High 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.
He was killed by a stingray during a diving expedition off the Australian coast in 2006, when Robert was just a baby.
From BBC • Nov. 26, 2025
Avoid the next encounter with a stingray or jellyfish, and instead explore the depths of the news in this week’s Slate News Quiz.
From Slate • Feb. 21, 2025
The inside of a myliobatid stingray tail is remarkably complex, the scientists learned.
From Salon • Feb. 10, 2025
Not to mention, you could step on a stingray or a sea urchin.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 16, 2024
She wrote down as many names of fish as she could think of: herring, cod, stingray, salmon, mackerel, haddock, shark, trout, perch, pike...What else was there?
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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.
