noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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UK:/ˈəʊpə/
US:/ˈoʊpə/
1
noun
Meaning 1
Any of various large, colourful, deep-bodied pelagic fish of the family Lamprididae.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
2003, Margaret M. Smith, Phillip C. Heemstra (editors), Smiths' Sea Fishes (Revision of 1977, James Leonard Brierley Smith, The Sea Fishes of Southern Africa), page 398, A member of the lower epipelagic community, the opah feeds on squid and fishes (including some benthic species) and is usually found well offshore.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
large elliptical brightly colored deep-sea fish of Atlantic and Pacific and Mediterranean
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: moonfish, Lampris regius
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: soft-finned fish, malacopterygian
History
Etymology
From Igbo uba. Earliest attestation in English is the Royal Society’s 1752 Philosophical Transactions, 1749–50 (vol. 46, p. 519): “The black Prince, and his Cousin, from Anamaboe on the Coast of Guinea, and Mr. Creighton, formerly Governor of Capo Corso Castle, upon seeing this Fish immediately knew it, and said it was common on that Coast ... The Natives call it Opah, and the English there call it the King-fish”
Across languages
Translations
4 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Bulgarian:
опах
(opah)
— fish of the Lampridae family
German:
Gotteslachs
— fish of the Lampridae family
Polish:
strojnik
— fish of the Lampridae family
Russian:
о́пах
(ópax)
— fish of the Lampridae family
