swordtail

[sawrd-teyl, sohrd-]

sword·tail

[sawrd-teyl, sohrd-]
noun
any of several small, brightly colored, viviparous, freshwater fishes of the genus Xiphophorus, native to Central America, having the lower part of the caudal fin elongated into a swordlike structure: often kept in aquariums.
Also called helleri.


Origin:
1925–30; sword + tail1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To swordtail

00:10

00:09

00:08

00:07

00:06

00:05

00:04

00:03

00:02

00:01

Swordtail is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Collins
World English Dictionary
swordtail (ˈsɔːdˌteɪl)
 
n
any of several small freshwater cyprinodont fishes of the genus Xiphophorus, esp X. helleri, of Central America, having a long swordlike tail

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

swordtail

(Xiphophorus helleri), popular tropical fish of the live-bearer (q.v.) family Poeciliidae (order Atheriniformes). The swordtail is an elongated fish, growing to about 13 centimetres (5 inches) long and characterized, in the male, by a long, swordlike extension of the lower tail fin lobe. The fish is closely related to the platy (q.v.) and, like its relative, has been used extensively in genetic and medical research. Originally green with a red stripe on each side, the swordtail has been bred in many colour varieties

Learn more about swordtail with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Cite This Source
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature