catadromous
|cat-a-dro-mous|
🇺🇸
/ˌkætəˈdroʊməs/
🇬🇧
/ˌkætəˈdrɒməs/
downward-migrating (fish)
Etymology
'catadromous' originates from New Latin, ultimately from Ancient Greek 'katádromos', where 'kata-' meant 'down' and 'dromos' meant 'running' or 'course'.
'catadromous' changed from New Latin 'catadromus' and 19th-century scientific usage into the modern English adjective 'catadromous'.
Initially, it meant 'running down' (literal sense), but over time it evolved into the specialized biological meaning 'migrating down to the sea to spawn'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
relating to or denoting fish that migrate from fresh water down to the sea to spawn.
The European eel is catadromous, spending most of its life in rivers before returning to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/08/16 21:45