Anarhichas is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Anarhichadidae, the wolffishes or sea wolves.

Anarhichas was first proposed as a genus by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of the Systema Naturae when he described its type species A. lupus, from the "northern English Ocean".

[1][2] The genus is one of two genera in the family Anarhichadidae, which is classified within the order Scorpaeniformes in the suborder Zoarcoidei by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.

[3] The genus name Anarhichas is an Ancient Greek name for the Atlantic wolffish (A. lupus) and means "the climber," in turn derived from the Greek anarrhichesis which means, "to climb or scramble up" , this may be an allusion to the ancient belief that wolffishes left the water and climbed up on the rocks.

There are well developed movement sensitive sensory canals on the head and as the fish ages the pores grow very large.