blue whale

[ bloo hweyl, weyl ]

noun

1. a migratory baleen whale, Balaenoptera musculus, mostly of oceans and seas in the Southern Hemisphere, the largest mammal ever known, growing to a length of 100 feet (30.5 meters) and having a furrowed, slate-blue skin mottled with lighter spots, in some seas acquiring a yellowish coating of diatoms on the underside: now classified as endangered, it was once hunted nearly to extinction, but international conservation efforts begun in the 1960s have enabled the blue whale population to rebound significantly.

blue whale

noun

1. the largest mammal: a widely distributed bluish-grey whalebone whale, Sibbaldus (or Balaenoptera ) musculus , closely related and similar to the rorquals: family Balaenopteridae Also calledsulphur-bottom

Word History and Origins

Origin of blue whale¹

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

It is bigger than a blue whale, the team say.

From BBC

Fin whales are the second largest animals on Earth after the blue whale.

From Los Angeles Times

Like the blue whale, fin whales are balleens, sporting two blowholes and, instead of teeth, hundreds of rows of baleen plates made of keratin.

From Los Angeles Times

She and her colleagues also filmed an Antarctic blue whale mother and calf - the biggest animals on Earth - feeding in the same area.

From BBC

Richard Ellis, a polymath of marine life whose paintings, books and museum installations — especially the life-size blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History in New York — revealed the beauty and wonders of the ocean, died on May 21 in Norwood, N.J.

From New York Times