Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various marine flatfishes of the family Cynoglossidae, having the posterior part of the body tapering to a point.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A kind of flatfish, Aphoristia plagiusa, found from Virginia to Texas and the West Indies.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A flounder (Symphurus plagiusa) native of the southern coast of the United States.

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

  • noun Any of the flatfishes in the taxonomic family Cynoglossidae, distinguished by the presence of a long hook on the snout overhanging the mouth.

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

  • noun left-eyed marine flatfish whose tail tapers to a point; of little commercial value
  • noun left-eyed marine flatfish whose tail tapers to a point; of little commercial value

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From its tongue-shaped body.]

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Examples

  • It was during those surveys that the researchers captured images that were totally unexpected; a species of previously unknown flatfish (also known as a tonguefish) was swimming nonchalantly through the clouds of poisonous chemicals and was even seen resting on top of pools of molten sulphur.

    Archive 2007-01-01 2007

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