# shellfish

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈʃɛl.fɪʃ/ · frequency rank #23,991

## Definitions
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.

## Etymology
Inherited from Middle English schellefyssch, from Old English sċielfisċ. Equivalent to shell + fish.

## Easily confused with
- **selfish** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/selfish-vs-shellfish)

## Common misspellings (13)
`hsellfish`, `sehllfish`, `shelfish`, `shelflish`, `shellffish`, `shellfihs`, `shellfishh`, `shellfissh`, `shellfsih`, `shellifsh`, `shhellfish`, `shlelfish`, `sshellfish`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/shellfish