jellyfish
jel·ly·fish/ˈd͡ʒɛliˌfɪʃ/noun
jellyfish is spelled J-E-L-L-Y-F-I-S-H: 9 letters and 3 syllables (jel·ly·fish). It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, jellyfish means “An almost transparent aquatic animal; any one of the acalephs, especially one of the larger species, having a jellylike appearance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of jellyfish is jellyfishes.
How many letters and syllables are in jellyfish?
| Letters | 9: J-E-L-L-Y-F-I-S-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: jel·ly·fish |
| In writing | 1.8 times per million words; the 20,906th 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 jellyfish?
Jellyfish appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th 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).
How do you pronounce jellyfish?
- /ˈd͡ʒɛliˌfɪʃ/
Jellyfish has 3 syllables, split jel·ly·fish in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-jellyfish.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with jellyfish
Also written: jelly-fish (one word or two).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of jellyfish
- jellyfishes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does jellyfish mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An almost transparent aquatic animal; any one of the acalephs, especially one of the larger species, having a jellylike appearance.
- 2
Any of various species of cnidarians in the subphylum Medusozoa, including box jellyfish (class Cubozoa), true jellyfish (class Scyphozoa), stalked jellyfish (class Staurozoa), and certain hydrozoans.
- 3
The medusa phase of these animals rather than a younger life stage.
- 4
A ctenophore, a member of the phylum Ctenophora (comb jellies).
- 5
A sudoku technique involving possible cell locations for a digit, or pair, or triple, in uniquely four rows and four columns only. This allows for the elimination of candidates around the grid.
- 6
Ellipsis of space jellyfish
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Jellyfish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense aquatic animal:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | méduse |
| German | Qualle, Meduse |
| Portuguese | medusa, água-viva, alforreca |
| Spanish | aguamala, aguaviva, malagua, ortiga de mar, acafelo, ortiga marina |
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.