What does "garfish" mean?

Any fish of the needlefish family Belonidae, with a long narrow body and needle-shaped jaws, especially the European species Belone belone.

What is a synonym for "garfish"?

Common synonyms include: garpike, gar, gar, billfish, common hornbeak, hornbeak.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any fish of the needlefish family Belonidae, with a long narrow body and needle-shaped jaws, especially the European species Belone belone. Ireland, UK, especially
2
primitive predaceous North American fish covered with hard scales and having long jaws with needlelike teeth wordnet
3
Any North or Central American fish of the family Lepisosteidae. Canada, US, especially

From Middle English garfysche (“garfish”, literally “spear-fish”), from gor (“spear”) + fisch (“fish”). Cognate with Scots gairfish (“garfish”).

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