angelfish

C2+ Topic:Animals

US /ˈeɪndʒəlˌfɪʃ/ UK /ˈeɪndʒəlfɪʃ/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a brightly colored tropical fish with a flattened, disk-shaped body

A pair of angelfish drifted lazily among the reef's coral fans.

Thesaurus

Word family

Related forms angel angelic

Etymology

A compound of angel + fish, named for its wing-like fins resembling an angel's wings. Angel derives from Latin angelus, from Ancient Greek angelos ('messenger').

angelos Ancient Greek fisc Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# angelfish

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈeɪndʒəlˌfɪʃ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈeɪndʒəlfɪʃ/

## Meanings
1. a brightly colored tropical fish with a flattened, disk-shaped body

## Examples
- A pair of angelfish drifted lazily among the reef's coral fans.

## Related Forms
- angel
- angelic

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: angelos
- Root: fisc

## Etymology
A compound of angel + fish, named for its wing-like fins resembling an angel's wings. Angel derives from Latin angelus, from Ancient Greek angelos ('messenger').

## AI Etymology
angelfish is a compound of angel + fish, named for its wing-like fins resembling an angel's wings. Angel derives from Latin angelus, from Ancient Greek angelos ('messenger'). Morphologically, the word is transparent as a compound: its parts remain visible in the modern spelling, while the older history of those parts supplies the deeper ancestry. In modern use, the noun sense is "a brightly colored tropical fish with a flattened, disk-shaped body", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as angel, angelic, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Ancient Greek angelos, Old English fisc, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Animals
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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