tuna

(also called ‘tunafish’, ‘tunny’; plural – ‘tuna’ or ‘tunas’; pronunciation: the letters ‘tu’ rhyme with the word “too” or with the letters ‘tu’ in “tune” — for the two different pronunciations, please click here)

a kind of fish – salt water – bony, finned & scaly – related to the mackerels – stout body with pointed snout (= mouth and nose part), very narrow tail part, sharp fins with short spines on the back part, crescent-shaped tail; size: (vary widely) the smallest – the blackfin tuna – 3-4 feet in length and 15-20 Kg. in weight, and the largest – the bluefin tuna – 6-10 feet in length and 500-650 Kg. in weight; feeds on (eats) zooplankton (= very small water animals), fish, shellfish, squid; lives for (lifespan, too, varies widely) the shortest lived – the skipjack (tuna) 3 years, and the longest lived – the bluefin tuna 30 years; about 48 species (?) found in most parts of the oceans

The pink to red flesh of tuna, fresh from the market or canned, which people eat is also called ‘tuna’.

(tinned/canned tuna)

Special Features:

The tuna fish are a popular sport and food fish.

Tuna are canned/tinned and sold all over world.

(tuna cactus)

The name ‘tuna’ is also used for (a) ‘tuna eel’, a New Zealand eel (b) ‘tuna cactus’, a kind of American cactus plant and its edible fruit. For an interesting article about the tuna eel, please click here. For an article about ‘tuna cactus’, please click here.

Figures of Speech:
tuna (noun) = the vagina (= the sex organ of a woman — not to be used in formal situations)