tuna

UK/ˈtjuː.nə/US/ˈtjuː.nə/

nounB1Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,850 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: tunas

Tuna is the big sea fish sold as fresh steaks or packed into tins. Dark red raw, pale and flaky cooked.

It is one of the fastest fish in the ocean and one of the most heavily fished, which is why tins carry labels about dolphin-friendly nets and sustainable sourcing. Bluefin is the prized and threatened kind. The word works as a mass noun, so you buy tuna rather than tunas, though biologists use the plural for species. A tuna melt and a tuna mayonnaise sandwich are the everyday dishes.

Definitions of tuna

1nountunaA large sea fish eaten fresh or tinned.B1
“She made a tuna sandwich for the train.”

Where it comes from

Spanish
atún
es-US
tuna
English, today
tuna

Borrowed from es-US tuna, from Spanish atún. es-US tuna, alteration of Spanish atún, from Arabic تن (“tuna”), from Latin thunnus, itself from Ancient Greek θύννος. Possibly in the sense of "darter" from thynein "to dart along". a doublet of tonno.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Food & Drink, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 24 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

tuna in the wild

The tuna used is usually pre-cooked, canned, and packaged in water or oil.
Tuna salad
The albacore (Thunnus alalunga), known also as the albicore or longfin tuna, is a species of tuna of the order Scombriformes.
Albacore
Albacore form schools based on their stage in the life cycle, but also combine with other tuna like the skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna, and bluefin tuna.
Albacore
The Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) is a species of tuna in the family Scombridae.
Atlantic bluefin tuna
The Atlantic bluefin tuna is a close relative of one of the other two bluefin tuna species, the Pacific bluefin tuna.
Atlantic bluefin tuna

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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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