butterflyfish
noun
butterflyfish is spelled B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-Y-F-I-S-H: 13 letters. It appears about once in every 54 million words in written English, the 228,409th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, butterflyfish means “Any of a group of conspicuous tropical marine fish of the family Chaetodontidae; the bannerfish and coralfish are also included in this group.…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of butterflyfish is butterflyfishes.
How many letters and syllables are in butterflyfish?
| Letters | 13: B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-Y-F-I-S-H |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 54 million words; the 228,409th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is butterflyfish?
Butterflyfish appears about once in every 54 million words in written English, the 228,409th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Forms of butterflyfish
- butterflyfishes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does butterflyfish mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of a group of conspicuous tropical marine fish of the family Chaetodontidae; the bannerfish and coralfish are also included in this group. Butterflyfish are fairly small, mostly from 12 to 22 cm (c.7-9 in) in length.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Butterflyfish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense tropical marine fish:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | poisson-papillon |
| German | Falterfisch |
| Spanish | pez mariposa |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does butterflyfish come from?
From butterfly + fish, from their butterfly-like appearance and bright colours.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).