tilapia

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
9
Words With Friends
11
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/təˈlɑːpiə/
See all 3 pronunciations
/təˈlɑːpiə/ · /tɪˈlɑːpiə/ · /tɪˈlæpiə/

Definition of tilapia

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. Any of various edible fish, formerly species of the genus Tilapia, but now placed in other cichlid genera (such as Oreochromis), native to Africa and the Middle East but cultivated worldwide.
    “Well I dined last night with Scarface Ron On tilapia fishcakes and fried black swan.”
See all 2 definitions

noun

  1. Any of various edible fish, formerly species of the genus Tilapia, but now placed in other cichlid genera (such as Oreochromis), native to Africa and the Middle East but cultivated worldwide.
    “Well I dined last night with Scarface Ron On tilapia fishcakes and fried black swan.”
  2. A fishy (resembling a cisgender woman) drag queen; a drag queen who could pass for a woman, as opposed to one who is exaggeratedly feminine.
    “Vietnamese tilapia Plastique Tiara was at the forefront of one of Drag Race's most controversial eliminations earlier this year. Although the Texan performer and biological woman was leaving us gooped week-after-week with her runways, she was – spoiler alert! – eliminated in eighth place after lip-syncing against Miss Vanjie, despite having a better track record.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Etymology tree Tswana tlhapider. taxonomic name Tilapialbor. English tilapia Learned borrowing from taxonomic name Tilapia, from Tswana tlhapi (“fish”). The drag race slang usage is a reference to the comment by Gia Gunn on entering Ru Paul's Drag Race (season 6) "Just landed like fresh tilapia".

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to tilapia to make another valid word.

Find your best play with tilapia

See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes tilapia, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.