noun
General term for sharks; commonly written in katakana as サメ.
昨日、水族館で大きなサメを見た。
Yesterday I saw a big shark at the aquarium.
サメは海の食物連鎖の頂点に立つ生き物だ。
Sharks are creatures at the top of the ocean food chain.
The origin is uncertain; the word is native Japanese. The kanji 鮫 is a phono-semantic compound with 魚 (fish) and 交 (mix, exchange), but the exact historical derivation is unclear.