Handfish

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of the anglerfishes of the family Brachionichthyidae, which can "walk" on the sea floor using their pectoral fins.

    "An astonishing exception, however, is a single fossil of a handfish, so-named because they ʻwalkʼ on fin-like hands."

Example

More examples

"An astonishing exception, however, is a single fossil of a handfish, so-named because they ʻwalkʼ on fin-like hands."

Etymology

From hand + fish.

Related phrases

smooth handfishpectoral fin

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