Definition of "acanthopterygian" []

• Any of a large group of fishes of the superorder Acanthopterygii, having bony skeletons and spiny rays in the dorsal and anal fins and including the bass, perch, mackerel, and swordfish. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The acanthopterygian family (_Labyrinthici_) contains nine freshwater genera, and these are distributed between the East Indies and South and"
• "If you speak of an acanthopterygian, it is plain that you are not discussing perch in reference to its roasting or boiling merits; and if you make an allusion to monomyarian malacology, it will not naturally be supposed to have reference to the cooking of oyster sauce."
• "Ay, there must be something strangely entrancing in dragging the shoal waters with a hand-line, for unsuspicious, easily duped members of the acanthopterygian tribe of fishes, -- under which alarming denomination come, I believe, nearly all the finny fellows to be met with on these sand-banks, from the bluefish to the burgall."