Ichthys

//ˈɪkθəs// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A stylized representation of a fish, used as a Christian symbol.

    "So how could this congregation of crusty kids feel justified in having ichthys tattoos? What would John Lydon think?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
jesus fishjesus fish

Example

More examples

"The ichthys was used by early Christians as a secret symbol."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ΙΧΘΥΣ (IKHTHUS, “fish”), which also served (repurposed) as an acronym (ΙΧΘΥΣ (IKHTHUS)) for Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsoûs Khristós, Theoû Huiós, Sōtḗr, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”).

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