How do you pronounce shark?

The recorded pronunciation is /ʃɑɹk/.

Where does shark come from?

It is traced to Middle English.

shark

/ʃɑɹk/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.10 in modern English

Syllables: shark
IPA: /ʃɑɹk/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Any predatory fish of the superorder Selachimorpha, with a cartilaginous skeleton and 5 to 7 gill slits on each side of its head.

Countable

noun

Meat of this animal, consumed as food.

Uncountable

noun

Any fish of the class Chondrichthyes, especially an extinct shark-like holocephalian.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"The straunge fishe is in length xvij. foote and iij. foote broad, and in compas about the bodie vj. foote; and is round snowted, short headdid, hauing iij. rankes of teeth on either iawe, …. Also it hath v. gills of eache side of the head, shoing white. Ther is no proper name for it that I know, but that sertayne men of Captayne Haukinses doth call it a sharke."
"He said he had spoken to a woman who was kayaking off Catalina Island, California, in 2008 when a shark slammed her kayak from underneath and sent her flying into the air. She then landed on the back of the shark, Collier said. "At that point the shark started to swim out to sea, so she jumped off its back," Collier said."
"Shark has traditionally, although in some secrecy, been a staple food in European, American and Australian food."
"In the past, people did not like to eat shark because they thought sharks ate the bodies of dead sailors."
"Do not eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish due to their high levels of mercury."
"Cladoselache, a well-preserved Devonian shark fossil from Ohio. Here the cartilages and some muscle tissues are preserved intact"

Etymology

From Middle English shark (used by Thomas Beckington in 1442 to refer to a kind of fish), of uncertain origin. Most likely from a semantic extension of the German-derived shark (“scoundrel”), see below. The fish was originally called a dogfish or haye in English and Middle English. Its name in Old English is unknown, although some uses of the word hranfisċ that do not appear to carry the sense of "whale" may have been referencing it. alternative theories Some older dictionaries derived the word from Latin c(h)archarias, c(h)acharus (from Ancient Greek), but admit that "the requisite [Old French] forms intermediate between E. shark and L. carcharus are not found, and it is not certain that the name [shark] was orig. applied to the fish; it may have been first used of a greedy man". Other older authorities speculated that the word might derive from Yucatec Maya xok (“fish”) (/ʃok/), as John Hawkins brought a specimen from the area where Mayan was spoken to England in the 1560s. However, the 1442 use rules out a New World origin for the word.

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: shark, -, Schurke

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ʃɑɹk/
British English: /ʃɑːk/

Usage

Subject

Wiktionary places this term in Law.

Inflected Forms

sharks (plural) sharke (alternative, obsolete) sharks (present, singular) sharking (participle, present) sharked (participle, past) sharked (past)

Derived Forms

angelshark cardshark carpetshark catshark gollumshark gummyshark houndshark landshark lanternshark megashark mudshark sawshark

Phrases

angel shark Atlantic sharpnose shark bala shark bamboo shark basking shark bigeyed sixgill shark blacktip reef shark blind shark

Frequently Paired Words

barracuda dogfish hammerhead porbeagle smooth hound thresher white pointer wobbegong

Synonyms

haye hustler

Homonyms

shock (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)

Rhymes With

park mark dark clark arc clarke marc stark spark bark ark remark

shark

Meaning

Example Sentences

Etymology

Origin

Word Breakdown

Regional Pronunciation

Usage

Subject

Inflected Forms

Derived Forms

Phrases

Frequently Paired Words

Synonyms

Homonyms

Rhymes With

Questions

How to pronounce shark