crayfish

Meanings

1. 1nouncountablebiology

   A small freshwater animal with a hard shell and large claws, looking like a tiny lobster and living in streams and ponds.

   Grammar: The plural is crayfish, or occasionally crayfishes: three crayfish.

   Patterns

   • a crayfish in the stream

   The children found a crayfish hiding under a rock in the stream.

   Invasive crayfish are damaging river banks in parts of Europe.

   A crayfish can walk backward quickly to escape danger.

2. 2noununcountable

   The meat of this animal, cooked and eaten as food.

   Grammar: Uncountable when talking about food: we ate crayfish.

   Patterns

   • crayfish tails

   We had boiled crayfish with lemon and butter.

   The restaurant is famous for its crayfish salad.

   Swedish families often serve crayfish at summer parties.

Word forms

Common combinations

freshwater crayfish

Freshwater crayfish live only in clean streams.

boiled crayfish

We ate boiled crayfish at the festival.

crayfish tails

The pasta was topped with crayfish tails.

invasive crayfish

Invasive crayfish threaten native species.

catch crayfish

They went to the creek to catch crayfish.

Synonyms and how they differ

crawfish

Crawfish is the American form of the same animal, especially in the southern United States.

crawdad

Crawdad is an informal regional American word for the same animal.

lobster

A lobster is a much larger sea animal, while a crayfish is small and lives in fresh water.

yabby

Yabby is the Australian word for a similar freshwater crustacean.

Word family

crayfishing noun

the activity of catching crayfish

crawfish noun

American variant of crayfish

crustacean noun

an animal with a hard shell and many legs, such as a crab

shellfish noun

water animals with shells that are eaten as food

Commonly confused: crayfish or crawfish? crayfish or cuttlefish?

Practice

Make it your own

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