tangfish

T1A1N1G2F4I1S1H4

noun

A common or harbour seal (Phoca vitulina).

Scrabble 15
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Meanings

nountangfish (plural not attested)
  1. UKdialectalno pluralA common or harbour seal (Phoca vitulina).

    a noted retreat of seals or selkies, or tangfish, as they are vernacularly called in Zetland

    1863, Sidney Hall, Guide to the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland Including Orkney and Shetland, page 791
    2 more examples

    The coasts of Shetland swarm with the smaller seals, or Tangfish, so named from being supposed to live among the Tang, or larger fuci that grow near the shore.

    1813-1831, Brewster, David (1781-1868), Second American Edition of the New Edinburgh Encyclopædia, New York: Samuel Whiting and John L. Tiffany [and others], page 128

    On the rugged shores of Orkney there are two kinds of seal – the common seal or 'tangfish' (seaweed fish) of the Shetlands […] and the great grey seal

    2015, Victoria Dickenson, Seal, page 95

Origin

tang (“seaweed”) + fish

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

shafting
Cite this entry
APA

tangfish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tangfish

MLA

“tangfish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tangfish. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tangfish,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tangfish.

Source: tangfish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.