bluegill

bluegill — noun

1. a small freshwater fish with a blue patch near its gills, found in lakes and riv

1.nounB1
Definition

a small freshwater fish with a blue patch near its gills, found in lakes and rivers of North America, where it is caught by anglers for food and for sport.

Example

Brooke caught a large bluegill in the lake near her grandfather's farm last summer.

collocation: catch a bluegill

Pedro grilled the bluegill over a fire and ate it with rice and beans.

Common collocations
  • catch a bluegill
  • bluegill fishing
  • bluegill fillet
  • bluegill population
  • bluegill habitat
Synonyms
  • sunfish

    broader category; bluegill is one species of sunfish

  • panfish

    culinary term for any small fish cooked whole in a pan, including bluegill

  • bream

    regional term used in some parts of the southern US for bluegill and similar sunfish

Usage Note

The plural form is usually 'bluegills', but the word can also function as a collective noun (e.g. 'we caught bluegill all morning'). The name refers to the blue-coloured spot on the gill cover.

Common Mistakes

We ate blue fish for dinner.
We ate bluegill for dinner.
'blue fish' is a colour description, not the name of a specific species.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Bluegill is a specific species of sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus), while 'sunfish' is a broader family that includes dozens of species across North America. 'Panfish' is a cooking term for any small freshwater fish that fits in a frying pan — bluegill, crappie, and perch are all panfish, but the word says nothing about the fish's biology. 'Bream' is a regional name used mostly in the southern United States; it can refer to bluegill or to similar-looking sunfish, depending on the local dialect. If you want to be precise about the species, use 'bluegill'. For general conversation about small North American freshwater fish, 'sunfish' or 'panfish' are more widely understood.

sunfish ↗panfish ↗bream ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • bluegill fishing trip
  • bluegill population decline
  • catch and release bluegill

Prepositions

  • for bluegill
  • of bluegill

Etymology

English

The name combines 'blue' (referring to the colour) and 'gill' (the breathing organ of a fish). It was given to this species because of the bright blue spot on the lower part of the gill cover, a feature that distinguishes it from other sunfish. The word first appeared in American English in the late 1800s.

First known use

1877

1877, in the meaning defined above