Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A scombroid fish of the genus Orcynus, as O. thynnus.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) The chiefly British equivalent of tuna; any one of several species of large oceanic fishes belonging to the Mackerel family, especially the common or great tunny (Thunnus thynnus syn. Albacora thynnus, formerly Orcynus thynnus) native of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It sometimes weighs a thousand pounds or more, and is extensively caught in the Mediterranean. On the American coast it is called horse mackerel. See Illust. of Horse mackerel, under horse.

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

  • noun Tuna.

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

  • noun any very large marine food and game fish of the genus Thunnus; related to mackerel; chiefly of warm waters
  • noun important warm-water fatty fish of the genus Thunnus of the family Scombridae; usually served as steaks

Etymologies

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

[Italian tonno or French thon, both from Old Provençal ton, from Latin thunnus, thynnus, from Greek thunnos.]

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