topminnow

1. 1.

   small usually brightly-colored viviparous surface-feeding fishes of fresh or brackish warm waters; often used in mosquito control

   Synonymspoeciliid fishpoeciliidlive-bearer

   Broadercypriniform fish

   Narrowermosquitofishplatymollie

   Part ofPoeciliidae
2. 2.

   freshwater fish of Central America having a long swordlike tail; popular aquarium fish

   SynonymsswordtailhelleriXyphophorus helleri

   Broadercyprinodont

   Part ofXyphophorus

Other forms of topminnow

plural

topminnows·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about topminnow

What does topminnow mean?

topminnow means "small usually brightly-colored viviparous surface-feeding fishes of fresh or brackish warm waters; often used in mosquito control". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in topminnow?

topminnow has 3 syllables: top-min-now. The stress falls on "top".

What is another word for topminnow?

Close synonyms include poeciliid fish, poeciliid, live-bearer, swordtail, helleri. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is topminnow a common word?

topminnow is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.