Pacific salmon

noun

: any of several anadromous salmonid fishes (genus Oncorhynchus) chiefly of the northern Pacific that typically die after spawning and include the coho, sockeye salmon, chum salmon, Chinook salmon, and pink salmon

Pacific salmon are born in freshwater rivers that empty into the ocean, and then—in migration patterns that amaze and baffle—often return to their rivers of birth at spawning time.

—Jennifer A. Kingson

Word History

First Known Use

1888, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

Pacific salmon

noun

: salmon sense 1b