Standard Lemma guide

tetra

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

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈtɛ.tɹə/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: T EH1 T R AH0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of numerous species of small freshwater fish of the South American family Characidae and West African family Alestidae, popular in home aquariums.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

brightly colored tropical freshwater fishes

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: characin, characin fish, characid

History

Etymology

From translingual Tetragonopterus, an obsolete genus that included these fish, ultimately from Ancient Greek τετράγωνος (tetrágōnos, “square, quadrilateral”) + πτερόν (pterón, “wing, fin”).

Across languages

Translations

6 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: неонова тетра (neonova tetra) — fish
  • Finnish: tetra — fish
  • Italian: tetra — fish
  • Polish: tetra — fish
  • Russian: те́тра (tétra) — fish
  • Swedish: tetra — fish