herring
English · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
herring¹
- /ˈhɛɹɪŋ/
Rhymes with -ɛɹɪŋ
Where it comes from
From Middle English hering, from Old English hǣring, from Proto-West Germanic *hāring (“herring”), further etymology unknown. Possibly derived from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”) + -ing, due to the similarity of their fine bones to hair. Cognate with Scots hering, haring (“herring”), Saterland Frisian Hiering, Häiring (“herring”), West Frisian hjerring (“herring”), Dutch haring (“herring”), German Low German Hereng, Hering (“herring”), German Hering (“herring”), Bavarian Haring (“herring”). Late Latin haringus (whence French hareng, etc.) is borrowed from Germanic.
noun herrings · herring
- A type of small, oily fish of the genus Clupea, often used as food. Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
- Fish in the family Clupeidae.
- Those fish and any other fish similar to those in genus Clupea, many of those in the order Clupeiformes.
Herring²
proper noun
- A surname.
- A ghost town in Sac County, Iowa, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Preston County, West Virginia, United States.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: clupea harangus, blueback, mackerel, shad, coho, whitefish, haddock, codfish, cisco, kipper, spawn, boning, silvery, silver, scandian, sill
Translations
Every language
Talk about this word "herring." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/herring. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. herring. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/herring "herring." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/herring.Cite this
@misc{herring_2026,
title = {herring},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/herring},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
