Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Eel |
EelNoun1. The fatty flesh of eel; an elongate fish found in fresh water in Europe and America; large eels are usually smoked or pickled. 2. Voracious snakelike marine or freshwater fishes with smooth slimy usually scaleless skin and having a continuous vertical fin but no ventral fins. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "eel" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of an eel is good if you can maintain your grip on him. Otherwise fortune will be fleeting. To see an eel in clear water, denotes, for a woman, new but evanescent pleasures. To see a dead eel, signifies that you will overcome your most maliciously inclined enemies. To lovers, the dream denotes an end to long and hazardous courtship by marriage. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
An eel is any of the fishes in the order Anguilliformes.
The flat and transparent larva of the eel is called a leptocephalus.
Short movie of migrating glasseels: media:glasseelu.mov
The fresh water eels (unagi) and marine eels are commonly used in Japanese cuisine. Eels are used in Cantonese and Shanghai cuisine too. The European eel and other freshwater eels are eaten in Europe, the United States, and other places around the world.
See also:
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Eel."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
EEL | English | Emitter-to-emitter-coupled logic | Computing |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Agitation | Verb: be agitated; shake; tremble, tremble like an aspen leaf; quiver, quaver, quake, shiver, twitter, twire, writhe, toss, shuffle, tumble, stagger, bob, reel, sway, wag, waggle; wriggle, wriggle like an eel; dance, stumble, shamble, flounder, totter, flounce, flop, curvet, prance, cavort; squirm. |
Convolution | Serpent, eel, maze, labyrinth. |
Cunning | Adjective: cunning, crafty, artful; skillful; subtle, feline, vulpine; cunning as a fox, cunning as a serpent; deep, deep laid; profound; designing, contriving; intriguing;Verb: strategic, diplomatic, politic, Machiavelian, timeserving; artificial; tricky, tricksy; wily, sly, slim, insidious, stealthy; underhand; (hidden); subdolous; deceitful; slippery as an eel, evasive; crooked; arch, pawky, shrewd, acute; sharp, sharp as a tack, sharp as a needle; canny, astute, leery, knowing, up to snuff, too clever by half, not to be caught with chaff. |
Smoothness | Adjective: smooth; polished; Verb: leiodermatous, slick, velutinous; even; level; plane; (flat); sleek, glossy; silken, silky; lanate, downy, velvety; glabrous, slippery, glassy, lubricous, oily, soft, unwrinkled; smooth as glass, smooth as ice, smooth as monumental alabaster, smooth as velvet, smooth as oil; slippery as an eel; woolly; (feathery). |
Tergiversation | Adjective: changeful; irresolute; ductile, slippery as an eel, trimming, ambidextrous, timeserving; coquetting; Verb: |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Eel |
| English words defined with "eel": Ammodyte, Anguilla sucklandii, Animal electricity ♦ Bottle fish ♦ conger, conger eel, Conger sea, Cutlass fish ♦ Eelbuck, eellike, Electrical fish, elver ♦ Fausen ♦ genus Vallisneria, Grig, Guffer, Gymnonoti, Gymnotus ♦ Hag, Hornel, Horner ♦ Lant ♦ Muraena ♦ Paste eel, Pug-nose eel ♦ Sea eel, Silver eel, smorgasbord, Snigg, Sniggle, Spitchcock ♦ Tobias fish, tuna ♦ Vallisneria ♦ Yeel. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "eel": migratory fish ♦ Politician. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "eel": Yeel. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Eel" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Italian (eel), Spanish (eel). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Albatrosses have nothing to do with eel fishing (Pandaemonium; writing credit: Frank Cottrell Boyce) You eel in snake's clothing (Robin Hood; writing credit: Ken Anderson; Larry Clemmons) She's got a tongue like an electric eel, and she likes the taste of a man's tonsils (Blackadder II; writing credit: Richard Curtis; Ben Elton) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Eel (1916) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Anguilla chrysypa rafinesque. Common eel; Anguilla. In: "The Fishes of Porto Rico", by Barton Warren Evermann and Millard Caleb Marsh. Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. XX for 1900. First Part. P. 350, Plate 1. Credit: Fisheries. |  | An eel trap on display at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Eel grass meadows waving with the currents. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |  | Spotted moray eel slithers among the reef growth. Gymnothorax moringa. Credit: National Undersea Research Program (NURP). |
 | Green moray eel caught in a fish trap eats the other inmates. Gymnothorax sp. Credit: National Undersea Research Program (NURP). |  | Viper moray eel - Enchelycore nigricans. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |
 | Head-on view of a green moray eel. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |  | Gymnothorax flavimarginatus - Moray eel living in crevasse in reef. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |
 | Snake eel - a member of the Family Ophichthidae. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |  | A Reticulated Moray Eel. Credit: Sanctuaries. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Lope de Vega | Take every gain without showing remorse about missed profits, because an eel may escape sooner than you think. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Man is the eel. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Taiwan | Agriculture (2.6% of GDP): Major products--pork, rice, fruit and vegetables, sugarcane, poultry, shrimp, eel. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When we wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Eel" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 86.93% of the time. "Eel" is used about 153 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 86.93% | 133 | 27,614 |
| Noun (proper) | 11.76% | 18 | 82,615 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 1.31% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 153 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "eel": blind eel ♦ common eel ♦ conger eel ♦ congo eel ♦ eel buck ♦ eel hatch ♦ eel pot ♦ Eel pout ♦ electric eel ♦ electrical eel ♦ freshwater eel ♦ glass eel ♦ hair eel ♦ lamper eel ♦ lamprey eel ♦ Maroona eel ♦ moray eel ♦ mud eel ♦ paste eel ♦ rock eel ♦ sand eel ♦ sea eel ♦ silver eel ♦ slime eel ♦ slippery as an eel ♦ this child is an eel ♦ vinegar eel ♦ wheat eel ♦ wolf eel. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "eel": eel-and-pie, eel-backed, eel-basket, eel-fishermen, eel-fishing, eel-handler, eel-like, Eel-mother, eel-pout, eel-pouts, eel-proof, eel-shaped, eel-skin, eel-spear, eel-worms. | |
Ending with "eel": sand-eel. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
eel | 862 | parramatta eel | 20 |
electric eel | 153 | eel electric picture | 18 |
the eel | 128 | eel shootenanny | 17 |
moray eel | 128 | eel music | 17 |
eel sex | 86 | vinegar eel | 16 |
eel lyrics | 84 | conger eel | 16 |
freshwater eel | 54 | eel fish | 16 |
snowflake eel | 39 | peacock eel | 15 |
eel horeshoe | 39 | eel insertion | 14 |
gulper eel | 38 | eel tire track | 14 |
eel picture | 32 | eel freshwater moray | 13 |
american eel | 31 | sand eel | 13 |
fresh water eel | 27 | eel tab | 12 |
eel skin | 24 | eel electric shock | 12 |
lamprey eel | 23 | eel trap | 10 |
eel river | 22 | moray eel picture | 10 |
eel fire | 22 | aquarium eel | 9 |
wolf eel | 21 | snowflake moray eel | 9 |
eel skin wallet | 21 | eel fishing | 9 |
band eel | 20 | eel freshwater snowflake | 9 |
dragon eel | 9 | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "eel"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | paling, aal. (various references) | |
Albanian | ngjalë. (various references) | |
Arabic | الجريث, الانقليس نوع سمك, الإنكليس نوع من السمك. (various references) | |
Bavarian | aal. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | змиорка. (various references) | |
Chamorro | asuli. (various references) | |
Chinese | 鳗鱼 (EELS), 鰻魚 , 鰻 (Anguilla lostoniensis). (various references) | |
Cornish | sylly. (various references) | |
Czech | úhoř. (various references) | |
Danish | ål (common eel, eels, European eel, freshwater eel, river eel). (various references) | |
Dutch | paling (common eel, eels, European eel, freshwater eel, river eel), aal (Adelaide, ale, elver, liquid manure, muck-water, stale). (various references) | |
Esperanto | angilo. (various references) | |
Faeroese | állur. (various references) | |
Farsi | مارماهی . (various references) | |
Finnish | ankerias (common eel, European eel, freshwater eel, river eel). (various references) | |
Flemish | paling. (various references) | |
French | anguille (eel buck). (various references) | |
Frisian | iel. (various references) | |
German | aal (moray). (various references) | |
Greek | χέλι (common eel, European eel, freshwater eel, river eel). (various references) | |
Hebrew | צלופח. (various references) | |
Hungarian | angolna. (various references) | |
Icelandic | áll. (various references) | |
Indonesian | belut. (various references) | |
Italian | anguilla (Carling). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 鰻 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | うなぎ. (various references) | |
Korean | 장어 (EELS). (various references) | |
Lombard | bisetta. (various references) | |
Manx | astan. (various references) | |
Norwegian | ål. (various references) | |
Papago | wamad watopi. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eelay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | enguia (common eel, European eel, freshwater eel, river eel). (various references) | |
Romanian | ţipar (stencil). (various references) | |
Russian | угорь (acne, blackhead, comedo, grig, pimple). (various references) | |
Scottish | easgann, easg, eagann. (various references) | |
Sepedi | kgoka. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | jegulja. (various references) | |
Shona | hunga. (various references) | |
Spanish | anguila (grig). (various references) | |
Sranan | snekfisi. (various references) | |
Swedish | ål (comedo). (various references) | |
Thai | ปลาไหล. (various references) | |
Turkish | yılan balığı. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | в'юн (grig), вугор (acne, blackhead, push), батіг (lash, scourge, thong, whip). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | con cá chình. (various references) | |
Welsh | llysywen. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | anguilla, Anguilla anguilla, Anguilla anguilla(Linnaeus,1758), Anguilla vulgaris. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "eel": eelgrass, eelgrasses, eelier, eeliest, eellike, eelpout, eelpouts, eels, eelworm, eelworms, eely. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "eel": cartwheel, chainwheel, cogwheel, creel, enwheel, feel, flywheel, forefeel, freewheel, gearwheel, genteel, handwheel, heel, keel, kneel, manchineel, newsreel, nosewheel, outfeel, peel, pinwheel, reel, refeel, reheel, seel, speel, steel, streel, teel, thumbwheel, ungenteel, unreel, unsteel, vakeel, waterwheel, weel, wheel. (additional references) | |
Words containing "eel": beelike, beeline, beelined, beelines, beelining, cartwheeled, cartwheeler, cartwheelers, cartwheeling, cartwheels, chainwheels, cogwheels, creeled, creeling, creels, enwheeled, enwheeling, enwheels, feeler, feelers, feeless, feeling, feelingly, feelingness, feelingnesses, feelings, feels, flywheels, forefeeling, forefeels, freelance, freelanced, freelancer, freelancers, freelances, freelancing, freeload, freeloaded, freeloader, freeloaders, freeloading, freeloads, freely, freewheeled, freewheeler, freewheelers, freewheeling, freewheelingly, freewheels, gearwheels, genteeler. (additional references) | |
| |
"Eel" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ael, ayel, Ayelu, eacl, Eaei, eai, eal, Eala, ealm, ealu, eao, eaul, ebel, ebl, ec, ecel, ecl, Eclr, edel, Edela, Edl, eea, eeb, eedle, eee, eeee, eeek, Eeelam, eeh, eela, Eelco, eele, eell, eem, eeo, eep, eeq, eev, eez, efeo, egel, egl, ehl, ei, eif, eij, eik, eil, eild, eilf, eily, Eisl, Eiu, ej, e'l, ele, elea, eleal, elef, elem, eleo, eler, elet, elev, elex, elq, elu, elv, Emel, emeli, eml, eo, eoi, Eoq, eov, eoz, Epeli, epelo, eplp, eql, erel, erele, erl, erll, erlo, esel, esetl, etel, etl, eul, eula, eull, eulx, euv, eux, euyll, evel, evell, ewel, ewl, Exel, exell, exelp, exl, eyel, ezel, Iul, jele, Meehl, Oebel, oel, oele, uel, Ueli, xel, ycl, Yl, zeel, zel. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "eel" (pronounced ē"l) |
| 2 | ē" l | abele, anneal, appeal, conceal, congeal, corneal, creel, deal, diel, feel, genteel, heal, heel, ideal, spiel, squeal, steal, steel, surreal, teal, teel, keel, kneel, Leal, meal, ordeal, peal, Peel, puerile, real, reel, repeal, reseal, reveal, riel, seal, Seel, Shiel, unreal, unseal, veal, wheel, zeal. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: lee. | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-l" | |
-1 letter: el. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-l" | |
+1 letter: alee, dele, eels, eely, else, feel, flee, glee, heel, keel, leek, leer, lees, leet, leke, peel, pele, reel, seel, teel, tele, weel. | |
+2 letters: abele, aglee, allee, anele, bedel, belie, belle, betel, bevel, bezel, bleed, bleep, celeb, cleek, clepe, creel, deled, deles, delve, devel, eagle, easel, edile, elate, elder, elect, elegy, elemi, elide, elite, elope, elude, elute, elver, elves, excel, exile, expel, feels, fleer, flees, fleet, gelee, glebe, glede, gleed, gleek, glees, gleet, heels, helve, jebel, jewel, keels, kelep, kevel, kneel, laree, lease, leave, leben, ledge, leech, leeks, leers, leery, leets, leger, leges, lenes, lense, leone, leper, lethe, levee, level, lever, lexes, liege, lieve, lycee, melee, merle, newel, peels, peles, plebe, rebel, reels, refel, relet, repel, revel, seels, seely, selle, sleek, sleep, sleet, speel, steel, stele, teels, telae, teles, telex, wedel, wheel. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Abbreviations 16. Acronyms | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
