Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various marine food and game fishes of the family Scombridae and especially the genus Sarda, resembling a small tuna.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name applied primarily to pelagic fishes of the family Scombridæ, of a robust fusiform shape, and secondarily to others supposed to resemble them or be related to them.
  • noun In Australia, the oceanic bonito, Gymnosarda pelamis.
  • Pretty; nice; fine; graceful: an epithet in use in Spanish-speaking countries or regions originally settled by Spaniards.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A large tropical fish (Orcynus pelamys) allied to the tunny. It is about three feet long, blue above, with four brown stripes on the sides. It is sometimes found on the American coast.
  • noun any of a variety of scombroid fishes of the genera Sarda or Euthynnus, with a size intermediate between those of the smaller mackerels and the tunas. It is applied especially to the skipjack tuna (Euthynnus pelamis, syn. Katsuwonus pelamis, formerly Sarda Mediterranea, also called skipjack) of the Atlantic, an important and abundant food fish on the coast of the United States, and (Sarda Chilensis) of the Pacific, and other related species. These are large and active fishes, of a blue color above and silver below, with black oblique stripes.
  • noun The medregal (Seriola fasciata), an edible fish of the southern of the United States and the West Indies.
  • noun The cobia or crab eater (Elacate canada), an edible fish of the Middle and Southern United States.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of various marine fish of the genus Sarda, that are related to and resemble the tuna.
  • noun A large tropical fish, the skipjack, allied to the tunny, Katsuwonus pelamis or Orcynus pelamys.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun fish whose flesh is dried and flaked for Japanese cookery; may be same species as skipjack tuna
  • noun flesh of mostly Pacific food fishes of the genus Sarda of the family Scombridae; related to but smaller than tuna
  • noun any of various scombroid fishes intermediate in size and characteristics between mackerels and tunas

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Spanish, probably from bonito, pretty, diminutive of bueno, good, from Latin bonus, good; see deu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Spanish, from Arabic بينيت (bainīt).

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Examples

  • The nucleotides inosinate (eg in bonito flakes) and guanylate (eg in shiitake mushrooms) also evoke umami, and a notable feature is the synergistic effect between multiple umami sources.

    The Japanese brain - and umami Ray Girvan 2005

  • They do contain bonito though, so I can’t mark this bento as vegetarian.

    Bento #166 – Furikake frenzy! « Were rabbits 2008

  • The bonito is a coarser fish, and only becomes tolerable eating by the copious use of port-wine.

    The Lieutenant and Commander Hall, Basil, 1788-1844 1862

  • Asco en realidad no sabe el Sr Oliver Stone de quien esta hablando para que pueda tener una remota idea tendria que vivir aqui en venezuela. y ser de la clase pobre o media para que vea lo "bonito" de lo que el llama la revolicion Bolivariana y si tanto le parece bien Hugo Rafael Chavez frias aconsejele que renuncie y nos deje en paz antes que sea demasiado tarde...

    Filmstalker: Stone's South of the Border documentary trailer online 2009

  • Their empire stamped coins with the image of a bonito.

    Anglers Are in Dire Straits Along Istanbul's Bosphorus Marc Champion 2011

  • Marc Champion/The Wall Street Journal Mr. Ersin says tuna, swordfish, large bonito and Atlantic mackerel are long gone since he fished these waters with his father in the 1950s and 1960s.

    Upstream Battle in the Bosphorus 2011

  • "¡Ay qué bonito!" exclaimed Susy, picking up a sleek, ultra-modern black sculpture of a cat.

    Obsidian in Mexico: gift of the gods 2009

  • To make the journey, however, the bluefish, bonito, sea bass, horse mackerel and other species have to crowd from the open sea into the tiny Bosphorus strait, just 820 yards wide at its narrowest, past an estimated 10,000 waiting rods and nets on any given day.

    Anglers Are in Dire Straits Along Istanbul's Bosphorus Marc Champion 2011

  • For soba, the default is bonito broth, but a vegetarian option is available on request.

    Noodles With Nutrients 2011

  • Mahir Ersin, who fishes for small quantities in his tiny boat says that while little fish are abundant, the tuna are long gone, as are the swordfish, large bonito and Atlantic mackerel that used to make the run when he fished here with his father in the 1950s and '60s.

    Anglers Are in Dire Straits Along Istanbul's Bosphorus Marc Champion 2011

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