Meaning & use
goatfish
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablebiology
A slim, small-scaled fish with two long whisker-like feelers on its chin that it uses to find food in sand and mud on the seafloor.
Grammar: Plural is goatfish or goatfishes: a school of goatfish.
Patterns
- a school of goatfish
A goatfish probed the sand with its barbels, searching for worms.
Divers saw a yellow goatfish near the reef.
Goatfish are popular food fish in the Mediterranean.
Word forms
| plural | goatfish |
|---|---|
| plural | goatfishes |
Common combinations
- yellow goatfish
- The yellow goatfish stood out against the dark sand.
- school of goatfish
- A school of goatfish swam over the sand.
- goatfish barbels
- The goatfish barbels are sensitive to chemicals.
- goatfish feeding
- Goatfish feeding stirs up the seabed.
- grilled goatfish
- We ate grilled goatfish at a seaside cafe.
Synonyms and how they differ
- red mullet
- Red mullet is a cooking and market name for several goatfish, especially in Europe, though it is not a true mullet.
- surmullet
- Surmullet is an older name for the red mullet, a goatfish of European seas.
Word family
- goatfishes noun
- alternative plural, used for several species
- goat noun
- the animal whose beard gives the fish its name
- barbel noun
- a whisker-like feeler on some fish
Commonly confused: goatfish or mullet?
goatfish vs mullet
Grey mullet is an unrelated fish with no chin barbels, though red mullet is a goatfish.
Practice
What feature of the goatfish gives the fish its name?
Choose one answer.
Goatfish have chin barbels that resemble a goat's beard. They have no horns, and they do not jump or bleat.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “goatfish”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.