Coelacanth
//ˈsiː.lə.kænθ// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any of the class Actinistia of primitive lobe-finned fish, thought to have been extinct for 70 million years until a living specimen was discovered in 1938. Most species are large and plump and they all have bodies covered in tough elasmoid scales that act as armor.
"Among them were ancient relatives of the piranhas and those popular aquarium fish the tetras, along with garfish and freshwater coelacanths, known as mawsonids."
- 2 fish thought to have been extinct since the Cretaceous period but found in 1938 off the coast of Africa wordnet
- 3 Any of the class Actinistia of primitive lobe-finned fish, thought to have been extinct for 70 million years until a living specimen was discovered in 1938. Most species are large and plump and they all have bodies covered in tough elasmoid scales that act as armor.; Either of the two extant species in this group; the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) or the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis).
Example
More examples"The coelacanth inhabits the deep sea."
Etymology
From the New Latin genus name Coelacanthus, from Ancient Greek κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”) + ἄκανθα (ákantha, “spine”), referring to the hollow caudal fin rays of the first fossil specimen described and named by Louis Agassiz in 1839.
Related phrases
More for "coelacanth"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.