seafood

seafood — noun

1. any type of ocean animal that people catch or prepare for eating, including fish

1.nounA2
Definition

any type of ocean animal that people catch or prepare for eating, including fish, shellfish, squid, and crabs

Example

The seafood platter at Andrés's restaurant came with grilled fish and fresh oysters.

collocation: seafood platter

Imani always orders seafood when she visits the night market near her home.

collocation: order seafood

Common collocations
  • fresh seafood
  • seafood restaurant
  • seafood market
  • seafood platter
  • seafood dish
  • seafood soup
  • raw seafood
  • grilled seafood
  • local seafood
  • seafood industry
Synonyms
  • fish

    a narrower term that refers only to finned sea animals, not shellfish or squid

  • shellfish

    refers only to sea creatures with shells, such as clams, oysters, and crabs

  • marine produce

    a more formal and less common term for edible ocean products

Grammar Patterns

uncountable noun — cannot be used with 'a' or in plural

Usage Note

Seafood is an uncountable noun. You cannot say 'a seafood' or 'seafoods' — instead say 'some seafood' or 'a type of seafood'.

Common Mistakes

I ate a seafood for dinner.
I ate seafood for dinner.
seafood is uncountable and does not take the article 'a'.
The restaurant serves many fresh seafoods.
The restaurant serves many fresh seafood dishes.
seafood cannot be used in the plural form.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Seafood is the broadest term, covering all edible creatures from the ocean — fish, shellfish, squid, octopus, and more. Fish is narrower and refers only to creatures with fins and a backbone, such as salmon, tuna, and cod. Shellfish is narrower still, covering crustaceans such as shrimp, crab, and lobster, and mollusks such as clams and oysters. You might say 'I love seafood, especially fish and shellfish' to show the relationship between these terms. When ordering in a restaurant, 'seafood' tells the server you want something from the ocean generally, while 'fish' or 'shellfish' tells them exactly what kind.

seafood ↗fish ↗shellfish ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • fresh seafood
  • local seafood
  • raw seafood

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

Seafood is a compound word formed from 'sea' (from Old English sæ, meaning a large body of salt water) and 'food' (from Old English fōda, meaning nourishment or things eaten). The word first appeared in the English language during the 19th century, when improvements in transportation made ocean-caught food available far from the coast.