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minnow

UK/ˈmɪnəʊ/US/ˈmɪnoʊ/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,175 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: minnows

A minnow is a tiny freshwater fish that swims in shoals. Catch a minnow, a jar of minnows, minnows in the shallows.

It is what children catch with a net in a stream, and it is used as bait for larger fish. In sport the word means the smallest and weakest club in a competition, and a giant-killing is when the minnows beat somebody they should not.

Unknown · Public domain

Definitions of minnow

  1. 1nounminnowA tiny freshwater fish that swims in shoals.B2+

    “The children caught minnows in a jam jar at the edge of the stream.”

minnow is a fish.

Where it comes from

{{multiple images |direction = vertical |image1 = Phoxinus phoxinus Prague Vltava 2.jpg

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Insects & Sea Life

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minnow in the wild

  • While the common name can refer to a range of taxa, smaller fish in the subfamily Leusciscinae are considered by anglers to be "true" minnows.

    Minnow

  • The other species in this genus are also commonly known as minnows.

    Phoxinus

  • "Cutlips minnows" is also used for the genus Exoglossum as a whole.

    Exoglossum maxillingua

  • Isolated from all other minnows by its three-lobed lower jaw with the middle lobe sticking out like a tongue.

    Exoglossum maxillingua

  • The Rio Grande silvery minnow is one of the most endangered fish in North America, according to the U.

    Rio Grande silvery minnow

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.