hammerhead

English

Sphyrna lewin

Etymology

From hammer +‎ head.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

hammerhead (plural hammerheads)

1. The portion of a hammer containing the metal striking face (also including the claw or peen if so equipped).
2. (zoology) Any of various sharks of the genera Sphyrna or Zygaena having the eyes set on projections from the sides of the head, which gives it a hammer shape.
3. (zoology) A fresh-water fish; the hogsucker, Hypentelium nigricans, in the sucker family Catostomidae.
4. (zoology) An African fruit bat, the hammer-headed fruit bat, Hypsignathus monstrosus, so called from its large blunt nozzle.
5. (zoology) Scopus umbretta (hammerkop).
6. (slang) A stupid person, a dunce.
   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter V, in Jeeves in the Offing:

     [The butler] joined us with a telegram for Bobbie on a salver. From her mother, I presumed, calling me some name which she had forgotten to insert in previous communications. Or, of course, possibly expressing once more her conviction that I was a guffin, which, I thought, having had time to ponder over it, would be something in the nature of a bohunkus or a hammerhead.

7. A turn-around; a parking area constructed in a subdivision for initial access and construction.
8. (biology) A kind of ribozyme; hammerhead ribozyme.

Acid-base hammerhead ribozyme

Synonyms

• (shark): hammerhead shark, hammer fish, balance fish

Translations

portion of a hammer used for hitting

• Polish: bijak (pl) m

shark

• Asturian: pexe martiellu (ast)
• Bulgarian: акула-чук f (akula-čuk)
• Catalan: tauró martell m
• Danish: hammerhaj
• Finnish: vasarahai (fi)
• French: requin marteau (fr) m, zygène (fr) f
• Galician: peixe martelo (gl) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: ζύγαινα f (zúgaina)

• Korean: 귀상어 (gwisang'eo)
• Maori: mangō pare (shark), mangōpare, kakere
• Navajo: łóóʼ hashkéhé bitsiiʼ dikʼání
• Norwegian: hammerhai m
• Polish: rekin młot m
• Russian: аку́ла-мо́лот (ru) f (akúla-mólot), ры́ба-мо́лот (ru) f (rýba-mólot)
• Spanish: cornudilla f
• Turkish: çekiç başlı köpek balığı
• Vietnamese: cá mập đầu búa

See also

• hammerkop
• hammerhead ribozyme
• hammerhead turn

References

• hammerhead on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “hammerhead”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “hammerhead”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.