ichthyosaur
/ˈɪkθiəsɔːɹ/noun
ichthyosaur is a noun meaning “Any fishlike marine reptiles of the extinct order †Ichthyosauria of the early Triassic to the late Cretaceous period, that had a body somewhat like a…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled I-C-H-T-H-Y-O-S-A-U-R, and it appears about once in every 21 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of ichthyosaur is ichthyosaurs.
What does ichthyosaur mean?
noun
- 1
Any fishlike marine reptiles of the extinct order †Ichthyosauria of the early Triassic to the late Cretaceous period, that had a body somewhat like a porpoise.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce ichthyosaur?
- /ˈɪkθiəsɔːɹ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ichthyosaur.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ichthyosaur
- ichthyosaurs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is ichthyosaur?
Ichthyosaur appears about once in every 21 million words in written English, the 139,999th 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).
Ichthyosaur in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense extinct reptile:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ichtyosaure |
| German | Fischechse, Fischeidechse, Fischsaurier, Ichthyosaurier, Ichthyosaurus |
| Portuguese | ictiossauro |
| Spanish | ictiosaurio |
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 ichthyosaur come from?
Borrowed from translingual Ichthyosaurus, equivalent to Ancient Greek ἰχθύς (ikhthús, “fish”) + Ancient Greek σαῦρος (saûros, “lizard”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).