Chinook salmon

noun

variants or less commonly chinook salmon or Chinook or chinook

: a large, usually red-fleshed, commercially important salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) of the northern Pacific Ocean that is typically bluish-green above with silvery sides, has a dark mouth with black gums, and attains an average weight of about 30 to 40 pounds (13.5 to 18 kilograms) but may sometimes exceed 120 pounds (54 kilograms)

called also black salmon, king salmon

Illustration of Chinook salmon

Examples of Chinook salmon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Chinook salmon from the Rogue River were pink and delicious, as was halibut caught off the Oregon coast. —Michael Goldstein, Forbes.com, 16 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1851, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for Chinook salmon

• reexamine
• backgammon
• examen
• examine
• glutamine
• famine
• gammon
• mammon

Kids Definition

Chinook salmon

noun

: a large salmon of the northern Pacific Ocean that has red flesh and is used as food