sturgeon

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various large ganoid freshwater and marine fishes of the family Acipenseridae of the Northern Hemisphere, having edible flesh and valued as a source of caviar and isinglass.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A chondroganoid fish of the order Chondrostei and family Acipenseridæ (see the technical names). There are 2 leading genera, Acipenser and Scaphirhynchops, or ordinary and shovel-nosed sturgeons. Of the latter there are 4 species, confined to the fresh waters of the United States and some parts of Asia, as S. platyrhynchus of the former country, 5 feet long. (See cut under shovelhead.) The common sturgeon of the Atlantic, anadromous in Europe and North America, is A. sturio. Another, of the Atlantic coast of the United States, is the short-nosed sturgeon, A. brevirostris. The small or Ruthenian sturgeon, or sterlet, of some European waters is A. ruthenux. (See sterlet, with cut.) The great white sturgeon, beluga, or huso of Pontocaspian waters, is A. huso; this is the largest known, 12 or 15 feet or more in length, weighing 1,000 pounds or more, and an important source of isinglass and of caviar. The white sturgeon of the Columbia and Sacramento rivers is A. transmontanus, an important food-fish, of from 300 to 600 pounds weight. The green sturgeon of the same waters is A. medirostris, supposed to be unfit for food. An isolated and very distinct species, land-locked in fresh waters of the United States, is A. rubicundus, variously known as the red, black, stone-, rock-. lake-, and Ohio sturgeon; it reaches a length of o feet, and a weight of from 50 to 100 pounds. Nearly all the sturgeons are the objects of important fisheries, for their flesh, for various uses of their bony plated skins, and as sources of isinglass and caviar. Sturgeons rank with whales as regal or royal fishes (see regal). See also cut under Acipenser.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any marine or freshwater fish of the family Acipenseridae that are famed for their roe.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of large cartilaginous ganoid fishes belonging to Acipenser and allied genera of the family Acipenseridæ. They run up rivers to spawn, and are common on the coasts and in the large rivers and lakes of North America, Europe, and Asia. Caviar is prepared from the roe, and isinglass from the air bladder.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. large primitive fishes valued for their flesh and roe; widely distributed in the North Temperate Zone