gill

CEFRC1

/ɡɪl/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The organ fish use to breathe in water.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A gill slit or gill cover.

Examples

  • The fish has a small tear near its left gill.

  • Gill usually acts most efficiently.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /d͡ʒɪl/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. One of the radial folds on the underside of the cap of a mushroom, the surface of which bears the spore-producing organs.

  2. A breathing organ of fish and other aquatic animals.

  3. The fleshy flap that hangs below the beak of a fowl; a wattle.

More examples

In context

  • Gill nets are designed to catch a fish by the gills.

  • In cases of very heavy catches the nets may be hauled and stored with the fish still gilled. The fish would then be shaken out on return to the port.

  • Fishes […] perform their respiration under water by the gills.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The fish breathes through its blank, extracting oxygen from water.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English gille, gylle (“gill”), of North Germanic origin, akin to Danish gælle, Swedish gäl, Norwegian gjelle, and further to Old Norse gjǫlnar (“lips”), which also may have had the meaning of "gills" (based on Old Danish fiskegæln (“gills”)). The Old Norse word has been suggested as deriving from Proto-Germanic *gelunō (“jaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel-, which would make it root-cognate to Ancient Greek χελύνη (khelúnē, “lip, jaw”), χεῖλος (kheîlos, “lip”). Displaced native Old English ċīe.