whale

/weɪl/

/hweɪl/

/weɪl/

Other forms: whales; whaling; whaled

A whale is a large mammal that lives in the ocean. Whales need to breathe air periodically, and the blowholes on their heads help them do this. Blue whales are the largest animals that ever lived — they're even bigger than the largest dinosaurs were!

The Old English root of whale means both "whale" and "walrus," although these two marine animals are quite different from each other. While some whales grow to be only ten feet long, many whales are enormous. The informal phrase "a whale of a" comes from the idea that whales are impressive, and you can use it for things (or people) that really distinguish themselves: "Wow, this is a whale of a party!"

Definitions of whale

1. noun

   any of the larger cetacean mammals having a streamlined body and breathing through a blowhole on the head
   types:

   baleen whale, whalebone whale

   whale with plates of whalebone along the upper jaw for filtering plankton from the water

   toothed whale

   any of several whales having simple conical teeth and feeding on fish etc.

   Monodon monoceros, narwal, narwhal, narwhale

   an Arctic cetacean, the male of which has a long ivory tusk

   spouter

   a spouting whale

   right whale

   large Arctic whalebone whale; allegedly the `right' whale to hunt because of its valuable whalebone and oil

   Balaena mysticetus, Greenland whale, bowhead, bowhead whale

   large-mouthed Arctic whale

   razorback, rorqual

   any of several baleen whales of the family Balaenopteridae having longitudinal grooves on the throat and a small pointed dorsal fin

   Balaenoptera musculus, blue whale, sulfur bottom

   largest mammal ever known; bluish-grey migratory whalebone whale mostly of southern hemisphere

   Megaptera novaeangliae, humpback, humpback whale

   large whalebone whale with long flippers noted for arching or humping its back as it dives

   Eschrichtius gibbosus, Eschrichtius robustus, devilfish, gray whale, grey whale

   medium-sized greyish-black whale of the northern Pacific

   Physeter catodon, black whale, cachalot, sperm whale

   large whale with a large cavity in the head containing spermaceti and oil; also a source of ambergris

   Kogia breviceps, pygmy sperm whale

   small sperm whale of warm waters of both coasts of North America

   Kogia simus, dwarf sperm whale

   very small (to 8 feet) sperm whale of central coasts of Atlantic and Pacific

   beaked whale

   any of several whales inhabiting all oceans and having beaklike jaws with vestigial teeth in the upper jaw

   dolphin

   any of various small toothed whales with a beaklike snout; larger than porpoises

   type of:

   blower, cetacean, cetacean mammal

   a large aquatic carnivorous mammal with fin-like forelimbs and no hind limbs such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises
2. noun

   something big or impressive in size or qualities
   synonyms: giant, heavyweight, hulk

   type of:

   large person

   a person of greater than average size
3. verb

   hunt for whales
   type of:

   hunt, hunt down, run, track down

   pursue for food or sport (as of wild animals)