Plural of crayfish; freshwater crustaceans that look like tiny lobsters, found in streams and rivers worldwide.
From Old French 'creisse' (crayfish) + 'fish' (Old English 'fisc'). 'Crayfish' is a compound despite seeming simple, literally meaning 'cray-fish.' The irregular plural 'crayfishes' shows how English preserves older forms.
English is wonderfully contradictory—we usually say 'fish' plural, but 'fishes' when emphasizing different species. So 'crayfishes' suggests there are multiple species of crayfish we're distinguishing!
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