anadromous

English

WOTD – 15 October 2010

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀνάδρομος (anádromos), from ἀνά (aná, up) + δρόμος (drómos, running).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /əˈnad.ɹə.məs/
  • (US) IPA(key): /əˈnæd.ɹə.məs/
(file)

Adjective

anadromous (not comparable)

  1. (of a migratory fish) That lives in the sea and breeds in fresh water.
    Shads and most species of salmon are anadromous.
    • 2014 April 20, Richard Conniff, “An evolutionary family drama”, in The New York Times:
      Alewives are anadromous fish: Born in freshwater, they spend their lives in the ocean, returning annually to their birthplaces to spawn.
    • 2017, James C Scott, chapter 1, in Against the Grain, New Haven & London: Yale, →ISBN, page 53:
      Bird migration routes favor marshes and river valleys, as do, more obviously, the movement of anadromous salmon and, the mirror image, catadromous eels, to mention only two of the numerous migrating fish species.
  2. (botany) Of a fern in which the first veins in a frond segment are produced towards the apex of the frond.

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See also

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