Definitions

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

  • noun Any of numerous small fishes of the family Fundulidae and related families of the order Cyprinidontiformes, chiefly inhabiting fresh and brackish waters in warm regions and popular in home aquariums.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name given about New York to fishes of the family Cyprinodontidæ and genera Fundulus and Hydrargyra, having an elongated form, depressed scaly head, bands of pointed teeth in the jaws, and a dorsal fin mostly in advance of the anal, with from 11 to 17 rays.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several small American cyprinodont fishes of the genus Fundulus and allied genera. They live equally well in fresh and brackish water, or even in the sea. They are usually striped or barred with black. Called also minnow, and brook fish. See minnow.

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

  • noun Any of a number of tiny fish in the Cyprinodontiformes order of ray-finned fish.

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

  • noun small mostly marine warm-water carp-like schooling fishes; used as bait or aquarium fishes or in mosquito control

Etymologies

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

[Perhaps kill + fish.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • My favorite kind of killifish is the mummichog.

    December 17, 2007

  • As well it might be!

    December 17, 2007

  • You must have a fun job, mollusque. :-)

    December 17, 2007

  • I do. I'm a curator at the natural history museum in Philadelphia. Any Wordie who comes through town is welcome to contact me for a behind-the-scenes tour.

    December 18, 2007

  • So I heard! (On Facebook, maybe?) Wow, a tour sounds like great fun. Nice of you to extend the offer. :-)

    December 18, 2007

  • Mangrove killifish can live in trees.

    July 31, 2009

  • But contrary to the linked article, they are not the only vertebrates that can reproduce without a mate. Parthenogenesis has been demonstrated in some sharks.

    August 1, 2009