blue whale

American  

[bloo hweyl, weyl] / ˈblu ˈʰweɪl, ˈweɪl /

noun

blue whales plural

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 British  

noun

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

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• blue whales
  plural

Etymology

Origin of blue whale

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

blue whale

Jake, nestled into his sleeping bag on a cot underneath the museum's gigantic suspended model of a blue whale, said he was "so happy to be here."

From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2025

The blue whale is usually considered the largest creature in the ocean.

From NewsForKids.net ● Nov. 27, 2024

The team found that mandatory measures to reduce whale-ship collisions were very rare, overlapping just 0.54% of blue whale hotspots and 0.27% of humpback hotspots, and not overlapping any fin or sperm whale hotspots.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2024

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

From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2024

We had a large garbage can, a blue whale of a bin.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover