noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any of many species of reef-dwelling fishes, most of them brightly coloured, of the family Acanthuridae. They bear erectile, scalpel-like, dangerously sharp spines on either side of the caudal peduncle.
2. 2
   brightly colored coral-reef fish with knifelike spines at the tail wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

tang

Etymology

From surgeon + fish.

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