minke

[ming-kee]

noun

1. a dark-colored baleen whale, Baleanoptera acutorostrata, inhabiting temperate and polar seas and growing to a length of 33 feet (10 meters): reduced in numbers.

Word History and Origins

Origin of minke¹

1930–35; < Norwegian minkehval, allegedly after a crew member of the Norwegian whaling pioneer Svend Foyn (1809–94), named Meincke, who mistook a pod of minkes for blue whales

Example Sentences

Other whale species include North Pacific gray whales, the North Atlantic right whale, minke, sperm, fin and bowhead whales.

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The crew also find comfort in the wonders of the ocean - dolphins and flying fish, and one night an encounter with a pod of friendly minke whales, swimming in bio-luminescent water.

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A minke whale in Long Beach Harbor and a gray whale stranded on Huntington City Beach also succumbed to the outbreak.

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The study, published in Scientific Reports, found a steep rise in strandings involving common dolphins and baleen whales - filter-feeding species that include minke and humpback whales.

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A minke whale in Long Beach Harbor and a gray whale that stranded in Huntington Beach also succumbed to the outbreak.

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