parrotfish

noun

par·​rot·​fish ˈper-ət-ˌfish How to pronounce parrotfish (audio)
ˈpa-rət-
variants or parrot fish
: any of a family (Scaridae) of usually brightly colored chiefly tropical marine fishes that have the teeth in each jaw fused into a cutting plate resembling a beak

Examples of parrotfish in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
And to sleep, some parrotfish engulf themselves in a mucus cocoon. Vox Staff, Vox, 5 Nov. 2024 Some of the world’s beaches are largely made of parrotfish poop. Benji Jones, Vox, 8 Oct. 2024 Coral reefs face a similar fate: parrotfish, which play a crucial role in controlling algae growth, have seen their populations plummet on the Mesoamerican Reef due to overfishing. Rebecca Shaw, TIME, 9 Oct. 2024 Against these mounting threats, parrotfish can do very little. Benji Jones, Vox, 8 Oct. 2024 When moving through a crowd of darting and preening Italians, her presence is anomalous — a sea anemone amid parrotfish. Molly Young, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2024 Grunts, parrotfish, groupers, snappers and jacks were particularly popular seafood species. Sean Kingsley, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Jan. 2024 In other words, conserving reefs isn’t just about fixing marine problems, like reducing overfishing to protect critical ecosystem operators like parrotfish. WIRED, 9 Aug. 2023 Many species were affected, including cardinalfish, parrotfish, damselfish, and others. IEEE Spectrum, 14 Mar. 2019

Word History

First Known Use

1712, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of parrotfish was in 1712

Dictionary Entries Near parrotfish

Cite this Entry

“Parrotfish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parrotfish. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

parrot fish

noun
: any of various sea fishes that are related to the perches and have the teeth united into a cutting plate resembling a beak
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