Other forms: fishing, fishes, fished
A fish is an animal that lives in water and swims. Catch a fish, fish and chips, tropical fish.
The plural is usually fish; fishes is used for several species considered separately. Fishmonger, fishing rod and fish tank are standard. As a verb, to fish is to catch them, and to fish for something is to seek it indirectly: fishing for compliments. Note like a fish out of water; plenty more fish in the sea; a big fish in a small pond; and that fish and chips is one word to the whole country.
1nounfishAn animal that lives in water and swims.~71%
“There are lots of colourful fish on the coral reef.”
2verbcatchTo catch fish, or to seek something indirectly.~29%
“Every Sunday, my dad goes to fish in the river.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 14 sentences found in the wild and placed 14 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
fish is a water animal.
Old English fisc descends from a Proto-Indo-European root that also gives Latin piscis — the source of Pisces and piscatorial. The English f against Latin p is the regular Germanic sound shift.
Proto-Indo-European
*péysks
Middle English
fisch
English, today
fish
From Middle English fisch. From Middle English fisch, from Old English fisċ (“fish”), from Proto-West Germanic fisk, from Proto-Germanic fiskaz (“fish”), from Proto-Indo-European péysks (“fish”). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA