What’s the plural of “shrimp”?
Shrimp stays the same in both its singular and plural noun form. Either way, it’s shrimp.
- The plural of shrimp is shrimp.
- Shrimps is sometimes accepted as a plural (though some sources consider it nonstandard, and recommend to avoid its use).
What are shrimp?
‘Can we get a definition please?‘ No problem! Shrimp are a kind of crustacean. Crustaceans notably have an outer shell, or exoskeleton that protects the animal, as opposed to regular skin or epidermis. Shrimp have long and narrow abdomen, and long antennae.
Irregular plural nouns that stay the same
To be sure, what makes shrimp irregular as a plural noun in English is that its (more common) plural form stays the same as its singular form, and is just shrimp. It’s likely the case that shrimps came to be accepted as a plural form of shrimp overtime, since this is what one would assume the plural form of shrimp to be.
As you can see from the chart below, shrimp as a plural (sans -s) are not alone: beer, deer, moose, sheep, all stay the same in both their singular and plural noun forms. In cases where nouns show no change between their singular and plural forms, we can usually infer the count from other grammatical aspects of the sentence (or the context that the word appears in).
| singular | plural |
| shrimp | shrimp |
| moose | moose |
| fish | fish (sometimes fishes) |
| elk | elk |
| deer | deer |
| bison | bison (or bisons) |
What’s the singular of shrimp?
The singular of shrimp is shrimp.
Examples of shrimp/shrimps in sentences
1. “My dad likes to eat fried shrimp every time we go to visit his family in Maine. There’s a restaurant that is famous for their popcorn shrimp that he loves.”
2. “There was a colony of approximately four-hundred and thirty-thousand shrimps floating into the bay, turning the water almost pink.”
3. “Did you see the shrimp display at the aquarium? They are really such small animals. It’s a wonder they survive.”
4. Shrimp are widespread, and can be found near the seafloor of most coasts and estuaries, as well as in rivers and lakes.
5. Most shrimp species are marine, although about a quarter of the described species are found in fresh water.
What do you call a group of shrimp? Collective nouns for shrimp?
Groups of shrimp, or shrimp as a collective are called a colony, as in, a colony of shrimp.
Origin of the word shrimp
The shrimp, meaning:
“slender, long-tailed, ten-footed, edible marine crustacean,” evolved into Modern English from Middle English shrimpe; Old Norse skreppa “thin person,” ultimately from Proto-Germanic skrimp–.
Synonyms of shrimp
- Prawn (though technically a different underwater species, they often go by the same name.)
- Mite
- Runt
What’s the difference between they’re, their, and there?
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