shark
n. countablen. a large fish with sharp teeth and a body made of cartilage instead of bone. Some types are famous for being dangerous hunters in the ocean.
n. any of numerous elasmobranch fishes characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and a streamlined body.
The great white shark swims near the coast.
Marine biologists tagged the shark to track its migration patterns across the Atlantic Ocean.
Despite their reputation as apex predators, many shark species are currently threatened by overfishing and the loss of their natural habitats in coral reef ecosystems.
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.
From German Schurke (“scoundrel”); compare Dutch schurk.
Probably from the "steal" senses above, but perhaps related to shear. Compare shirk.
The plural form is typically 'sharks', though 'shark' can be used as a collective plural in specific fishing contexts.