Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A freshwater cyprinid fish (Carassius auratus) native to eastern Asia, usually having brassy or reddish coloring and bred in many ornamental forms as an aquarium fish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fish of the carp family Cyprinidæ, Cyprinus or Carassius auratus, originally a Chinese species, now domesticated and bred everywhere for ornament in ponds, tanks, and aquariums.
  • noun Same as garibaldi, 2.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small domesticated cyprinoid fish (Carassius auratus); -- so named from its color. It is a native of China, and is said to have been introduced into Europe in 1691. It is often kept as an ornament, in small ponds or glass globes. Many varieties are known. Called also golden fish, and golden carp. See Telescope fish, under telescope.
  • noun A California marine fish of an orange or red color; the garibaldi.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A type of fish (scientific name Carassius auratus), typically orange-colored.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small golden or orange-red freshwater fishes of Eurasia used as pond or aquarium fishes

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • Can it be true that the memory span of a golfish is 3 seconds! An email tells me so!

    October 5, 2007

  • And you know if it's on Teh Intarwebs, it must be true.

    October 5, 2007