little tunny

noun

variants or less commonly little tuna

plural little tunnies also little tuna or little tunas

: a small active nearly scaleless tuna (Euthynnus alletteratus) of warm usually shallow marine waters that is blue above with short dark wavy stripes and silvery-white below, that typically reaches a length of 32 inches (81 centimeters), and that is valued as a sport fish : false albacore

There may be no better inshore fighting fish than the little tunny, but they're also the poorest table fare in the family …

—The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey)

A little tunny is not an acrobat but it is a powerful speedster …

—Zach Zacharias

False albacore, or little tuna, have constantly been a challenge for me from the beach.

—Eric Burnley

called also bonito

Examples of little tunny in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The world-record little tunny weighed 36 pounds and was caught off the coast of Spain in 2020. —Joe Cermele, Field & Stream, 23 Aug. 2023

At the July rodeo, Kyle Davis topped the leaderboard with a 22.24-pound bonito, a species also known as little tunny. —al, 13 Sep. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1872, in the meaning defined above