Meaning & use
barbelled
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a nounbiology
Having barbels, which are thin whisker-like growths near the mouth of certain fish that help them feel and taste.
Grammar: Usually before a noun: a barbelled catfish.
Patterns
- a barbelled fish
The barbelled catfish searched the muddy river bottom for food.
A barbelled sturgeon uses its feelers to find shellfish in the dark water.
Biologists measured the length of each barbelled specimen in the tank.
Common combinations
- barbelled fish
- A barbelled fish can find food even in murky water.
- barbelled catfish
- The barbelled catfish is common in this lake.
- barbelled chin
- The species is easy to recognise by its barbelled chin.
- long-barbelled
- The long-barbelled loach hid under a rock.
Synonyms and how they differ
- whiskered
- Whiskered is a general word for having whiskers and is used for cats or men as well, whereas barbelled applies to fish.
- tendrilled
- Tendrilled means having thin curling threads and is more often used for plants.
- bearded
- Bearded can describe a hairy chin or fish with feelers, but it is much less precise than barbelled.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: barbelled or barbed? barbelled or barbell?
barbelled vs barbed
Barbed means having sharp pointed spikes, such as barbed wire, while barbelled refers to the feelers of a fish.
barbelled vs barbell
A barbell is a weightlifting bar and is unrelated in meaning, though the spelling is close.
Practice
What does a barbelled fish have?
Choose one answer.
Barbelled means having barbels, the feelers near a fish's mouth. Spikes would be called barbed, not barbelled.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “barbelled”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.