any of several voracious freshwater fishes, family Esocidae, caught both commercially and for sport. They are recognized by the elongate body, small scales, long head, shovellike snout, and large mouth armed with strong teeth. The dorsal and anal fins are far back on the tail.

Solitary hunters, pikes, pickerel, and muskellunge lie motionless in the water or lurk in a clump of weeds. As the prey comes within reach, they make a sudden rapid lunge and seize it. They usually eat small fishes, insects, and aquatic invertebrates, but larger forms also take waterfowl and small mammals. They spawn in weedy shallows from late winter through spring.

Pikes are of the order Salmoniformes. Wall-eyed pikes are not true pikes; they are members of the perch order (Perciformes).

medieval infantry weapon, a long spear with a heavy wooden shaft 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 metres) long, tipped by a small leaf-shaped steel point. The ancient Macedonian sarissa was similar. The use of the pike among the Swiss foot soldiers in the 14th century contributed to the decline of the feudal knights. It disappeared from land warfare with the introduction of the bayonet, though it was retained in shortened form as a naval boarding weapon through the 19th century. A variety of pike is used by the picador in bullfighting.