Definitions

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

  • adjective Migrating up rivers from the sea to breed in fresh water. Used of fish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Ascending.
  • In botany, to ferns whose lowest secondary branches originate on the anterior side of the pinuæ.

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

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Ascending rivers from the sea, at certain seasons, for breeding, as the salmon, shad, etc.
  • adjective (Bot.) Tending upwards; -- said of terns in which the lowest secondary segments are on the upper side of the branch of the central stem.

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

  • adjective of a migratory fish That lives in the sea and breeds in fresh water.
  • adjective botany Of a fern in which the first veins in a frond segment are produced towards the apex of the frond.

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

  • adjective migrating from the sea to fresh water to spawn

Etymologies

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

[From Greek anadromos, running up : ana-, ana- + dromos, a running.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἀνάδρομος, from ἀνά ("up") + δρόμοs ("running").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Sea trout in the British Isles, which is anadromous in spawning behavior, is also known according to region as sewin in Wales, finnock (Scotland), peal (West Country), mort (North West England) and white trout (Ireland). It is the entry of the fry into the sea that governs the growth and subsequent spawning of this fish, which is genetically identical with brown trout.

    April 12, 2012

  • Thanks, michaelt42--I just added finnock to my trout list.

    April 12, 2012