Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The small, laterally compressed, transparent larva of an eel or of any of certain related fishes, such as a tarpon.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A spurious genus of eel-like fishes, having a very thin diaphanous body, formerly regarded as a valid generic type and hence giving name to the Leptocephalidæ, but now generally considered to be the larval form of a conger.
  • noun The larval or aborted stage of the conger and allied fishes, when the body is much compressed and hyaline and no generative organs are developed.
  • noun The genus otherwise called Conger.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the larva of an eel, flat in shape and transparent

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun slender transparent larva of eels and certain fishes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin : lepto– + cephalus, head (from Greek -kephalos, -headed); see –cephalous.]

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