wrasse
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of wrasse
1665–75; apparently originally a plural of dial. (Cornwall) wrah, wraugh, wrath < Cornish wragh, lenited form of gwragh literally, old woman, hag; compare Welsh gwrach ( en ), Breton gwrac’h, also with both senses
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.
By dropping the shrimp and comparing its real movement with the reflected movement, the wrasse were effectively investigating how the mirror worked.
From Science Daily • Feb. 23, 2026
And on Norfolk Island — a remote rock in the Pacific Ocean with about 2,000 residents and essentially no exports to the U.S. — a children’s book author memed a baffled-looking tropical wrasse fish.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 20, 2025
Following a visit to the site of the incident, Mr Moyes believes the dead fish in the water to be wrasse.
From BBC • Sep. 30, 2024
Dr. Kohda knows well how tough persuading scientists can be, after his own extensive efforts to demonstrate self-awareness in the bluestreak cleaner wrasse fish.
From New York Times • Oct. 25, 2023
Comber, kom′bēr, n. a name applied to the gaper, a sea-perch, and to a species of wrasse.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
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.