How to Use wrasse in a Sentence

wrasse

noun
  • With more than 50 species, the fairy wrasse are found around coral reefs.
    — Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 5 Nov. 2021
  • This roving coral grouper fish is groomed by a bluestreak cleaner wrasse.
    — Kristin Ohlson, Discover Magazine, 2 Jan. 2019
  • Or a bluehead wrasse who had ovaries becomes a bluehead wrasse who has testes.
    — Abbey White, HollywoodReporter, 10 Nov. 2025
  • Again, this discovery was the result of his work with the cleaner wrasse.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 24 Oct. 2011
  • In that study, scientists observed a striped species of fish known as the cleaner wrasse.
    — Sigal Samuel, Vox, 20 July 2019
  • The wrasse measured 18 inches from nose to tail and had a 13-inch girth.
    — Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 27 Sep. 2023
  • One species of wrasse, for instance, has been filmed engaging in a marine version of tool use.
    — Jonathan Balcombe, Scientific American, 1 May 2017
  • In the scope was one of the many tiny fish bones that were found that day, probably belonging to a small comber or a wrasse.
    — Paul Greenberg, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Dec. 2022
  • After a week with a mirror in their tank, cleaner wrasses seem able to spot themselves in photos.
    — Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 1 June 2023
  • Some other wrasse species, known as cleaner wrasse, meticulously clean sea lice off bigger fish.
    — Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 27 Sep. 2023
  • That was odd, Evans said, because that species of wrasse is vegetarian.
    — Scottie Andrew, CNN, 13 Aug. 2020
  • When Chris Taylor presses play, footage of blue wrasse and greater amberjack fills the screen.
    — Carrie Arnold, National Geographic, 10 May 2019
  • Giant sheepshead wrasse — the only species that actually wants a fivehead.
    — Eliza Thompson, Cosmopolitan, 26 Jan. 2018
  • Cleaner wrasses behaved aggressively toward the ones with the stranger's face but not with their own.
    — Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 1 June 2023
  • These days the cave provides a home for Mediterranean sea creatures including starfish and rainbow wrasse.
    — National Geographic, 16 Aug. 2019
  • Other species found on shorelines included clams, ballan wrasse and ling, bryozoans and a harbour porpoise.
    — Sean Rossman, USA TODAY, 6 Mar. 2018
  • The wrasse passes the mirror test, Jordan says—but that doesn’t necessarily mean the fish is self-aware.
    — Federica Sgorbissa, ArsTechnica, 24 May 2026
  • In the ocean, groupers, wrasse and eels form a multispecies team, working together to flush out and consume prey in bouts of collaborative hunting.
    — Barbara J. King, Scientific American, 12 Sep. 2019
  • Battalions of bluestripe snapper and humphead wrasse—just two of the thousand species that swim here—jump in unison with the current before a vertical coral garden.
    — Stephanie Rafanelli, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 Dec. 2025
  • Towering coral pinnacles are home to reef sharks, Napoleon wrasse, and huge schools of snappers and fusiliers, all thriving in vibrant, unspoiled ecosystems.
    — Jessica Chapel, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 June 2025
  • During recent dives, researchers found more of this fairy wrasse -- as well as at least eight potential new fish species -- living deep beneath local recreational diving zones.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 12 Mar. 2022
  • Offshore, kite surfers dance across the lagoon while fishermen paddle slender pirogues above shallow coral gardens alive with neon wrasse and ghostly butterflyfish.
    — Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
  • Before being formally described, the fish was long mistaken as a red velvet fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus rubrisquamis).
    — Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Mar. 2022
  • For instance, meerkats teach their young how to handle food safely through scaffolded lessons, and the bluestreak cleaner wrasse polices its cleaning station to prevent conflict that might scare off fussy client fish.
    — Amy Brady, Scientific American, 19 July 2021
  • My focus swivels from them to the sharks to the organic brilliance of the coral to a massive green-and-blue humphead wrasse, a fish that can reach 400 pounds, silhouetted in the stormy light above.
    — John Briley, Washington Post, 21 Feb. 2020
  • Power and temptation cause shifts between exploitation and cooperation in a cleaner wrasse mutualism, Proc.
    — Christie Wilcox, Discover Magazine, 24 Apr. 2013
  • Hundreds of species thrive in the waters near and surrounding the archipelago nation, but the fairy wrasse is the first fish to be described by a Maldivian scientist — Ahmed Najeeb.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 29 Dec. 2022
  • But the cleaner wrasse, in demonstrating how individuals as well as groups can reap benefits from third-party punishments, shows us that such punishments can evolve through selfish tendencies rather than altruistic ones.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 8 Jan. 2010
  • It’s set on a private island within the property’s grounds, accessed by wooden bridges from the main motu and surrounded by the Lagoonarium–a private sanctuary home to thousands of marine creatures including iridescent giant clams, protected Napoleon wrasse and parrot fish.
    — Terry Ward, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 Dec. 2025
  • That’s the position of Alex Jordan, an evolutionary biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany and co-author of the PLOS Biology studies on the cleaner wrasse.
    — Federica Sgorbissa, ArsTechnica, 24 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wrasse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: