roe

CEFRC2

/ˈɹoʊ/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The eggs of a fish or other sea animal.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Ovaries of certain crustaceans.

Examples

  • I don't understand why people like salmon roe.

  • What she liked best was herring roe.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Sperm of certain fish.

  2. Eggs of fish.

  3. A mottled appearance of light and shade in wood, especially in mahogany.

More examples

In context

  • It was quite flavourless, except that, where its innards had been imperfectly removed, silver traces of roe gave it an unpleasant bitterness.

  • Today, some seafood experts say, the cheaper (though mushier) roe feeds 60 percent of the market.

  • And let his foes like flockes of feareful Roes, Purſude by hunters, flie his angry lookes, That I may ſee him iſſue Conquerour.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The chef prepared a dish using salmon blank, which are the eggs of the fish.

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

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English rowe, rowne, roun, rawne, from Old English *hrogn (“spawn, fish eggs, roe”), from Proto-Germanic *hrugnaz, *hrugną (“spawn, roe”), from Proto-Indo-European *krek- (“(frog) spawn”). Cognate with Dutch roge (“roe”), German Low German Rögen (“roe”), German Rogen (“roe”), Danish rogn, ravn (“roe”), Swedish rom (“roe”), Icelandic hrogn (“roe”), Lithuanian kurkulai̇̃ (“frog spawn”), Russian кряк (krjak, “frog spawn”).