Meanings
- not comparableThat lives in the sea and breeds in fresh water.
Shads and most species of salmon are anadromous.
3 more examples
Alewives are anadromous fish: Born in freshwater, they spend their lives in the ocean, returning annually to their birthplaces to spawn.
2014 April 20, Richard Conniff, “An evolutionary family drama”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 17 Dec 2020Bird migration routes favor marshes and river valleys, as do, more obviously, the movement of anadromous salmon and, the mirror image, catadromous eels, to mention only two of the numerous migrating fish species.
2017, James C Scott, chapter 1, in Against the Grain, New Haven & London: Yale, →ISBN, page 53Emphasizing that it has applied equitable apportionment to not only rivers and streams but also to interstate river basins, to groundwater pumping that affects surface water flows, and to anadromous fish like Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, the court stated that equitable apportionment applies only when transboundary resources are at issue.
2021 November 23, Robin Craig, “In dispute over groundwater, court tells Mississippi it’s equitable apportionment or nothing”, in SCOTUSblog, archived from the original on 20 Oct 2022
Synonyms & antonyms
antonym(s) of “of a migratory fish”
adjectivemigrating from the sea to fresh water to spawn
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ancient Greekἀνάδρομος“fish entering a river from the sea”
- Englishanadromous
From Ancient Greek ἀνάδρομος (anádromos, “fish entering a river from the sea”). By surface analysis, ana- + -dromous.
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic نَهْرِيُّ السَّرْءِ, نَهْرِيَّةُ السَّرْءِ
- نَهْرِيُّ السَّرْءِ (nahriyyu s-sarʔi)of migratory fish
- نَهْرِيَّةُ السَّرْءِ (nahriyyatu s-sarʔi)of migratory fish
Catalan anàdrom, anàdrom
- anàdromof a fern
- anàdromof migratory fish
Dutch anadroom
- anadroomof migratory fish
Finnish anadrominen, anadrominen
- anadrominenof a fern
- anadrominenof migratory fish
French anadrome
- anadromeof migratory fish
Greek ανάδρομος
- ανάδρομος (anádromos)of migratory fish
Italian anadromo, anadroma
- anadromoof a fern
- anadromaof a fern
- anadromoof migratory fish
Polish anadromiczny, anadromiczny
- anadromicznyof a fern
- anadromicznyof migratory fish
Portuguese anádromo, anádromo
- anádromoof a fern
- anádromoof migratory fish
Russian анадро́мный, проходно́й
- анадро́мный (anadrómnyj)of migratory fish
- проходно́й (proxodnój)of migratory fish
Spanish anádromo
- anádromoof migratory fish
Welsh esgynnol
- esgynnolof migratory fish
Cite this entry
anadromous. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anadromous
“anadromous.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anadromous. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “anadromous,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anadromous.
Source: anadromous on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.