eel

IPA/iːl/
KK[ˈil]IPA/iːl/

eel — noun

  • eelsingular
  • eelsplural

1. A fish with a very long thin body that looks like a snake. Some kinds of eel are

1.nounB2
Definition

A fish with a very long thin body that looks like a snake. Some kinds of eel are caught and cooked as food.

Example

Emiko bought grilled eel at the night market in Osaka and ate it with rice.

collocation: grilled eel, served with rice

A thick black eel wriggled out of the net and flopped onto the boat deck.

Common collocations
  • grilled eel
  • smoked eel
  • freshwater eel
  • saltwater eel
  • moray eel
  • eel sushi

Common Mistakes

I saw an eel in the garden.
I saw a snake in the garden.
eels live only in water; snakes are reptiles found on land and in water.

eel — verb

Word family

  • eel-like
    adjectiveB2
  • eely
    adjectiveC2
  • eeling
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

An eel is a fish that lives in water and looks like a snake, but the two animals are very different. A snake is a land reptile with dry scaly skin and lungs; it breathes air and many species live in deserts or forests. A sea snake is also a reptile — venomous and air-breathing — though it hunts in the ocean. A lamprey looks similar to an eel but has a round sucking mouth without jaws and is not commonly eaten. A worm is a small soft-bodied invertebrate that lives in soil, not water, and has no bones at all. Think of an eel as a real fish that just happens to have a long snakelike shape: it has gills, fins, and lives its whole life underwater.

snake ↗lampreysea snakeworm ↗

Common collocations

Phrases

  • slippery as an eel

Prepositions

  • like an eel

Etymology

Proto-GermanicOld EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

The word 'eel' comes from Old English 'ǣl', which developed from Proto-Germanic *ēlaz. Related words appear across the Germanic languages, such as German 'Aal' and Dutch 'aal'. The origin before Proto-Germanic is unknown. The verb meaning 'to move like an eel' appeared by the 1600s, while the fishing senses are later regional developments.