Frankenfish

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A fish that inspires fear for being unnatural in some way, as one that is invasive, or the product of genetic engineering. derogatory, informal

    "The federal government will ban the import of live northern snakeheads beginning Friday, waiving the normal 30-day waiting period"

  2. 2
    Alternative form of Frankenfish. alt-of, alternative

Example

More examples

"The federal government will ban the import of live northern snakeheads beginning Friday, waiving the normal 30-day waiting period"

Etymology

From franken- + fish, from blend of Frankenstein + fish. From the early 1990's when a biotech company announced plans for a fast-growing transgenic salmon, which was subsequently named Frankenfish by the press. Reintroduced in 2004, when the movie Frankenfish was released.

Related phrases

genetic engineeringnorthern snakehead

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.