beluga
Americannoun
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belugas
plural
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Also called hausen. a white sturgeon, Huso huso, of the Black and Caspian seas, valued as a source of caviar and isinglass.
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Also called sea canary, white whale. a cetacean, Delphinapterus leucas, of northern seas, that has a rounded head and is white when adult.
noun
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a large white sturgeon, Acipenser (or Huso ) huso , of the Black and Caspian Seas: a source of caviar and isinglass
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another name for white whale
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of beluga
1585–95; < Russian belúga (now regularly belúkha for the cetacean), equivalent to bél ( yĭ ) white + -uga, probably earlier *-ǫga (compare Czech pstruh, Polish pstrąg trout < *pĭstr- mottled + *-ǫgŭ a cognate suffix)
Vocabulary lists containing beluga
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Six beluga whales have arrived at aquariums in the United States after being moved from a closed Canadian marine park that could no longer care for the mammals.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
The study offers one of the clearest views yet into the hidden social lives of beluga whales.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026
Restaurants discarded over 50 pounds of beluga caviar likely worth tens of thousands of dollars, one said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
This includes unconventional cargo, such as a 7-foot beluga whale in an open tank.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
“So over here is the cold-water experience, with your penguins and beluga whales and whatnot. And over there...well, those are some fish, obviously.”
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
Animals including narwhals and belugas are sharing habitat with - or even being displaced by - these other whales.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
It is also performing baseline wildlife surveys, including acoustic monitoring of the belugas to better understand where they swim.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
They are part of a large pod of 30 belugas living at Marineland of Canada that need to be rehomed.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
At the same time, belugas live in large social groups that regularly break apart and come back together.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026
What happened when all the new animals in the north killed off the arctic foxes and belugas and narwhals and polar bears that already lived there?
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
