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shoal

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shoal¹

  • /ʃəʊl/ UK

Rhymes with -əʊl

Where it comes from

From Middle English schold, scholde, from Old English sċeald (“shallow”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *skalidaz, past participle of *skaljaną (“to go dry, dry up, become shallow”), from *skalaz (“parched, shallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to dry out”). Cognate with Low German Scholl (“shallow water”), German schal (“stale, flat, vapid”). Compare shallow.

adjective shoaler · shoalest · sheld · shole · shoald · shold

  1. archaic Shallow. shoal water

noun shoals · sheld · shole · shoald · shold · shaul

  1. A sandbank or sandbar creating a shallow. 'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

    Similar: bank, bar, sandbar, sandbank

  2. A shallow in a body of water. The depth of your pond should be six feet; and on the sides some shoals for the fish to sun themselves in and to lay their spawn.

verb shoals · shoaling · shoaled · sheld · shole

  1. To arrive at a shallow (or less deep) area.
  2. transitive To cause a shallowing; to come to a more shallow part of. Noting the rate at which she shoals her water -[…]
  3. To become shallow. The colour of the water shows where it shoals.

shoal²

  • /ʃəʊl/ UK

Rhymes with -əʊl

Where it comes from

1570, presumably from Middle English *schole (“school of fish”), from Old English sċeolu, sċolu (“troop or band of people, host, multitude, division of army, school of fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *skolu, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to divide, split, separate”).

Cognate with West Frisian skoal (“shoal”), Middle Low German schōle (“multitude, troop”), Dutch school (“shoal of fishes”). Doublet of school.

noun shoals

  1. Any large number of persons or things. Shoals of tourists
  2. collective A large number of fish (or other sea creatures) of the same species swimming together. c. 1661, Edmund Waller, On St. James's Park Beneath, a shoal of silver fishes glides.

Similar: school

verb shoals · shoaling · shoaled

  1. To collect in a shoal; to throng. The fish shoaled about the place.

Thesaurus

noun

Similar: school

Translations

Every language

noun a shallow

Españolbajío

noun sandbank

Españolbajío, bajo, banco de arena, sirte, restinga, arricete
한국어사주 saju, 모래톱 moraetop
日本語浅瀬 asase
中文淺灘 /浅滩 qiǎntān
Portuguêsbanco de areia
Françaisbanc de sable
DeutschSandbank
Italianosecca, banco di sabbia
Ελληνικάρηχά richá, ύφαλος ýfalos
Русскиймелково́дье melkovódʹje, о́тмель ótmelʹ, ба́нка bánka, мель melʹ
עבריתשרטון sirton

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MLA

"shoal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shoal. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

shoal. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shoal

Chicago

"shoal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shoal.

BibTeX
@misc{shoal_2026,
  title = {shoal},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shoal},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}