Pilchard

//ˈpɪl.t͡ʃɚd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various small oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae.

    "1839, John Hookham Frere (translator), The Birds, lines 76–77, in Acharnians and two other plays He longs occasionally for human diet, His old Athenian fare: pilchards, for instance."

  2. 2
    small fishes found in great schools along coasts of Europe; smaller and rounder than herring wordnet
  3. 3
    small fatty fish usually canned wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
sardinesardinefishsardina pilchardus

Example

More examples

"1839, John Hookham Frere (translator), The Birds, lines 76–77, in Acharnians and two other plays He longs occasionally for human diet, His old Athenian fare: pilchards, for instance."

Etymology

Unknown. Compare Dutch pelser.

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