bowhead

[ boh-hed ]

noun

1. a baleen whale, Balaena mysticetus, of northern seas, having an enormous head and mouth: an endangered species.

bowhead

/ ˈbəʊˌhɛd /

noun

1. a large-mouthed arctic whale, Balaena mysticetus , that has become rare through overfishing but is now a protected species

Word History and Origins

Origin of bowhead¹

First recorded in 1885–90; bow ² + head

Example Sentences

Researchers used more than a decade of acoustic data to monitor bowhead whales' movements between their usual overwintering grounds in the Bering Sea and summer feeding grounds in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.

From Science Daily

This feeding style would match that used by modern bowhead and right whales, which swim with their mouth open near the ocean surface to strain small prey from the seawater.

From Reuters

You’ve sequenced genomes of very long-lived animals such as the bowhead whale, which lives up to 200 years.

From Scientific American

Biologists studying bowhead whales, using research samples collected from the eastern Canadian Arctic and West Greenland, made a surprising discovery.

From New York Times

That second scenario aligned with what biologists knew about bowhead whale fetus sizes — small or big in the spring, medium-size in the fall.

From New York Times