shellfish
shell·fish/ˈʃɛl.fɪʃ/noun
shellfish is spelled S-H-E-L-L-F-I-S-H: 9 letters and 2 syllables (shell·fish). It appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shellfish means “A fisheries and colloquial term for an aquatic invertebrate having an inner or outer shell, such as a mollusc or crustacean, especially when edible” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of shellfish is shellfishes.
How many letters and syllables are in shellfish?
| Letters | 9: S-H-E-L-L-F-I-S-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: shell·fish |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words; the 23,835th 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 shellfish?
Shellfish appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th 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 shellfish?
- /ˈʃɛl.fɪʃ/
- [ʃɛɫˑfɪʃ]
Shellfish has 2 syllables, split shell·fish in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-shellfish.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-shellfish.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of shellfish
- shellfishes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shellfish mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A fisheries and colloquial term for an aquatic invertebrate having an inner or outer shell, such as a mollusc or crustacean, especially when edible.
- 2
A culinary and nutritional term for several groups of non-piscine, non-tetrapod, aquatic animals that are used as a food source. The term often exclusively refers to edible aquatic crustaceans, bivalve mollusks and cephalopod mollusks; but sometimes echinoderms may be included as well.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shellfish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense aquatic food that has a shell:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | coquillage, fruits de mer |
| German | Schalentier, Krustentier |
| Portuguese | marisco |
| Spanish | marisco |
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 shellfish come from?
Inherited from Middle English schellefyssch, from Old English sċielfisċ. Equivalent to shell + fish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).