opah
/ˈoʊpə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.13 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "2003, Margaret M. Smith, Phillip C. Heemstra (editors), Smiths' Sea Fishes (Revision of 1977, James Leonard Brierley Smith, The Sea Fishes of Southern Africa), page 398, A member of the lower epipelagic community, the opah feeds on squid and fishes (including some benthic species) and is usually found well offshore."
- "For a long time, opah has been thought to be good luck so it was only given away, never sold. Opah is a nonschooling open-ocean fish so it's not caught in great quantities."
- "Opah is an extraordinary-looking ocean fish, with an almost perfectly round shape; a comparatively thin, flat profile; a silvery skin, and bright crimson fins."
Etymology
From Igbo uba. Earliest attestation in English is the Royal Society’s 1752 Philosophical Transactions, 1749–50 (vol. 46, p. 519): “The black Prince, and his Cousin, from Anamaboe on the Coast of Guinea, and Mr. Creighton, formerly Governor of Capo Corso Castle, upon seeing this Fish immediately knew it, and said it was common on that Coast … The Natives call it Opah, and the English there call it the King-fish”
Word Breakdown
- Root: uba
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈoʊpə/
- British English: /ˈəʊpə/
Inflected Forms
Frequently Paired Words
Lampridae