whitetip shark

or white-tipped shark

[ hwahyt-tip, wahyt- ]

noun

1. Also called reef whitetip shark. a smooth dogfish, Triaenodon obseus, having white-tipped dorsal and caudal fins and occurring inshore among the reefs in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Red Sea.
2. Also called oceanic whitetip shark. a large, predominantly tropical deepwater shark, Carcharhinus longimanus, inhabiting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: considered to be the most dangerous of all sharks.

Word History and Origins

Origin of whitetip shark¹

white + tip ¹

Example Sentences

And 24 of the 31 species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, while three species - oceanic whitetip sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks and great hammerhead sharks - are considered critically endangered.

From Washington Times

When the research team crunched the numbers for the oceanic whitetip shark, a species that was common back in 1970, we “just looked at them in stunned silence,” Dulvy says.

From National Geographic

And 24 of the 31 species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, while three species — oceanic whitetip sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks and great hammerhead sharks — are considered critically endangered.

From Seattle Times

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources says two of the sharks found alive were from the threatened oceanic whitetip shark species and the third was a whitetip reef shark.

From Washington Times

Schools of wide-eyed scalloped hammerheads, 40,000-pound whale sharks, reef-patrolling whitetip sharks, more than 40 species in total, many endangered, are found only here.

From Washington Post