Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various large freshwater and marine fishes of the family Acipenseridae of the Northern Hemisphere, having ganoid scales and edible flesh and valued for their roe, which is used for caviar, and their swim bladders, which are used to make isinglass.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A chondroganoid fish of the order Chondrostei and family Acipenseridæ (see the technical names).

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of large cartilaginous ganoid fishes belonging to Acipenser and allied genera of the family Acipenseridæ. They run up rivers to spawn, and are common on the coasts and in the large rivers and lakes of North America, Europe, and Asia. Caviar is prepared from the roe, and isinglass from the air bladder.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Shovelnose (d).

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

  • noun Any marine or freshwater fish of the family Acipenseridae that are famed for their roe.

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

  • noun large primitive fishes valued for their flesh and roe; widely distributed in the North Temperate Zone

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French estourgeon, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French esturgon, from Frankish *sturjo.

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