goldfish

English

Some goldfish

A 19th-century watercolour of goldfish

Etymology

From gold +‎ fish.

Pronunciation

• enPR: gōld'fĭsh, IPA^(key): /ˈɡoʊldfɪʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: gold‧fish
• Rhymes: -oʊldfɪʃ

Noun

goldfish (plural goldfish or goldfishes)

1. A type of small fish, Carassius auratus, typically orange-colored.

   For the children's fair we'll have a few games they can play, so that each child "wins" a goldfish as a prize.

   • 2017, Howard Bennett, The Fantastic Body: What Makes You Tick & How You Get Sick:

     However, unless you have a nonshedding, nonlicking breed, there's no such thing as a truly hypoallergenic dog. How about a nice goldfish instead?

2. (figuratively, informal) A person with an unreliable memory.
3. Nonstandard form of Goldfish (“a small orange saltine-like cracker shaped in the form of a fish”).
   • 2000 January 1, Tracy T., “Knock knock...”, in alt.fan.british-accent‎^[1] (Usenet), archived from the original on 21 October 2025:

     Tomato soup is not complete without a toasted cheese sandwich and goldfishes. Not the new kind with the smiley faces though.

   • 2004 December 17, Brodysmommy, “11 month old picky eater or something bigger??”, in misc.kids‎^[2] (Usenet), archived from the original on 21 October 2025:

     The only solids he will eat are the Gerber Puffs, Cheerios, maybe some goldfish, and oyster crackers.

   • 2015, Josh Nealis, chapter 4, in Stuffed Squirrels & Porcelain Angels, Cutthroat Comics & Publishing, →ISBN, page 92:

     I’ve seen people let their kid drink from their drink and then drink from it themselves. That’s pushing the limits. That kid for sure just backwashed lime disease into your drink. Not to mention all the little chunks of animal crackers and goldfishes.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:goldfish.

Derived terms

• fantail goldfish
• Goldfish
• goldfish bowl
• Goldfish Club
• goldfishery
• goldfishlike
• goldfish plant
• goldfishy
• memory of a goldfish

Translations

fish

• Afrikaans: goudvis (af)
• Albanian: peshk i kuq
• Arabic: سَمَكَة زِينة f (samaka(t) zīna)
• Azerbaijani: şələquyruq qızıl balığı, Yapon balığı
• Basque: urre-arrain
• Belarusian: залата́я ры́бка f (zalatája rýbka)
• Bulgarian: зла́тна ри́бка f (zlátna ríbka)
• Catalan: carpí (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 金魚 / 金鱼 (zh) (jīnyú)

• Cornish: owrbysk m, (Revived Late Cornish) owrbesk m
• Czech: zlatá rybka f
• Danish: guldfisk c
• Dutch: goudvis (nl) m
• Esperanto: orfiŝo
• Estonian: kuldkala
• Finnish: kultakala (fi)
• French: poisson rouge (fr) m, carassin doré (fr) m
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: goudfisk c

• German: Goldfisch (de) m
• Greek: χρυσόψαρο (el) n (chrysópsaro)
• Hawaiian: iʻa ʻulaʻula
• Hebrew: דַּג זָהָב m (dag zaháv)
• Hindi: सुनहरी मछली f (sunahrī machlī)
• Hungarian: aranyhal (hu)
• Icelandic: gullfiskur (is) m
• Indonesian: ikan mas
• Irish: iasc órga m
• Italian: pesce rosso m
• Japanese: 金魚 (ja) (きんぎょ, kingyo)
• Kapampangan: talang-talang
• Kazakh: алтын балық (altyn balyq)
• Korean: 금붕어 (ko) (geumbung'eo)
• Latvian: Zelta zivtiņa
• Macedonian: златна рипка f (zlatna ripka)
• Malay: ikan emas (ms), ikan mas
• Malayalam: സ്വർണ്ണമത്സം (svaṟṇṇamatsaṁ)
• Manx: eeast airhey m
• Māori: morihana
• Mongolian: алтан загас (altan zagas)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: gullfisk m

  Nynorsk: gullfisk m

• Persian: ماهی قرمز (mâhi-ye qermez)
• Polish: złota rybka (pl) f
• Portuguese: doirada f, peixinho dourado m
• Romanian: peștișor auriu, caras-auriu m
• Russian: золота́я ры́бка f (zolotája rýbka)
• Sami:

  Skolt Sami: kåʹllkueʹll

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: златна рибица f

  Latin: zlatna ribica (sh) f

• Slovak: zlatá rybka f, karas striebristý m, karas zlatý (sk) m
• Slovene: zlata ribica f
• Spanish: pez rojo m, pez dorado (es) m, pez de oro m, pez de colores m, carpa dorada f (Mexico)
• Swedish: guldfisk (sv) c
• Tagalog: lali
• Thai: ปลาทอง (bplaa tong)
• Tibetan: གསེར་ཉ (gser nya)
• Turkish: Japon balığı
• Ukrainian: золота́ ри́бка f (zolotá rýbka)
• Urdu: سنہری مچھلی f (sunharī machlī)
• Uzbek: oltin baliq
• Vietnamese: cá vàng (vi), cá ba đuôi
• Volapük: ziporüt (vo), goldafit, golüdafit (original Volapük, Volapük rigik)
• Welsh: pysgod aur m pl, pysgodyn aur m sg (singulative)
• Yiddish: גאָלדפֿיש m (goldfish)
• Zhuang: byagim

person with an unreliable memory

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: huonomuistinen (fi), kultakala (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: złota rybka (pl) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Persian: ^{(please verify)} ماهی قرمز, ^{(please verify)} ماهی طلائی
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} caras rosu, ^{(please verify)} caras-auriu
• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} karas zlatý (sk)
• Thai: ^{(please verify)} ปลาทอง (bplaa-tɔɔng)