SHOAL
What does "SHOAL" mean?
A large group of fish swimming together, or a shallow place in a body of water.
Meanings
- A large number of fish swimming together as a group. A silver shoal of herring wheeled beneath the boat.
- An area of shallow water, especially a sandbank or sandbar that endangers ships. The chart warned of a hidden shoal off the headland.
- Of water, shallow. The boat ran aground in the shoal water near the inlet. archaic
Did you know?
- To biologists, 'shoal' and 'school' aren't synonyms: fish merely hanging out together form a shoal, but the moment they all turn and swim in coordinated formation they become a school - and both words trace to the same Old English root for a crowd.
Word origin
Two origins converge: the 'shallow' sense is from Old English 'sceald' meaning shallow; the 'group of fish' sense is from Old English 'scolu' meaning a troop or multitude, a doublet of 'school' of fish.
Remember it
SHOAL = SH + OAL, sounds like 'shallow' clipped short; a shoal is where the water goes shallow and the fish go thick.
A little poem
Ten thousand small fish
turn at once with no command-
one mind, briefly lent.
haiku
What it teaches
A shoal turns as one without a leader; sometimes the group's wisdom is simply watching your neighbour closely.
Quick facts
What does SHOAL mean?
A large group of fish swimming together, or a shallow place in a body of water.
Is SHOAL a valid word?
Yes — SHOAL is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is SHOAL?
SHOAL has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does SHOAL come from?
Two origins converge: the 'shallow' sense is from Old English 'sceald' meaning shallow; the 'group of fish' sense is from Old English 'scolu' meaning a troop or multitude, a doublet of 'school' of fish.
What can SHOAL teach us?
A shoal turns as one without a leader; sometimes the group's wisdom is simply watching your neighbour closely.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.