Bonito refers to a tribe of medium-sized, ray-finned predatory fish within the family Scombridae. This group shares its taxonomic classification with other well-known marine species, including mackerel, tuna, Spanish mackerel, and the butterfly kingfish.
The tribe is also known as Sardini and consists of eight distinct species distributed across four different genera. Notably, three of these four genera are monotypic, meaning each contains only a single species. In certain contexts, particularly in Japanese culture, the term bonito is frequently used to refer specifically to the skipjack tuna.