squid

UK/skwɪd/US/skwɪd/

nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,057 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: squids

A squid is a soft sea animal with ten arms that shoots ink to escape. Fried squid, a giant squid, squid ink.

Eight of the ten are arms and two are longer tentacles for striking at prey. It moves by jet propulsion and changes colour through cells in the skin it controls directly. The origin of the word is unknown, perhaps a sailors' version of squirt.

Definitions of squid

1nounsquidA soft sea animal with ten arms that shoots ink.B1+
“We ordered fried squid rings as a starter.”

squid is a sea animal.

Where it comes from

The origin is unknown. It may be a sailors' alteration of squirt.

unknown. Perhaps a sailors' alteration of squirt.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Animals

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squid in the wild

Many squids are rapid swimmers, moving by jet propulsion, and largely locate their prey by sight.
Squid
Squid have featured in literature since classical times, especially in tales of giant squid and sea monsters.
Squid
The giant squid (Architeuthis dux) is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae.
Giant squid
The number of different giant squid species has been debated, but genetic research suggests that only one species exists.
Giant squid
The film is named after the giant squid and sperm whale diorama housed at the American Museum of Natural History, which is seen in the film.
The Squid and the Whale

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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.

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