Devilfish vs Starfish - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between devilfish and starfish

is that devilfish is any of several unrelated marine animals while starfish is any of various asteroids or other echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.

devilfish

English

Noun

(en-noun)

Any of several unrelated marine animals

# manta ray

# octopus

# gray whale

# the goosefish or angler (Lophius ), and other allied fishes

(Webster 1913)

starfish

English

(wikipedia starfish)

Noun

(en-noun)

Any of various asteroids or other echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.

(vulgar, slang, usually in translations of Japanese pornography) an anus. See also chocolate starfish.

(obsolete) Any many-armed or tentacled sea invertebrate, whether cnidarian, echinoderm, or cephalopod.

* 1755 , , trans. Isaac Kimbler, Explanation of the Plate of Uncommon Star Fish, Extracted from the Natural History of Norway

But the largest of the star-fish' kind is that sea monster called kruken, kraken or krabben. [...] As this enormous sea-animal in all probability may be reckoned of the polype, or of the ' star-fish , kind, it seems that the parts which are seen rising at its pleasure, and are called arms, are properly the tentacula, or feeding instruments, called horns as well as arms.

Synonyms

* (various echinoderms) sea star, asteroid