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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
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of blue whale1

First recorded in 1850–55
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Example Sentences

In 2004, a blue whale died and washed up on a beach in downtown Monterey.

Only male blue whales are known to sing, but both sexes move southward at about the same time each year.

Potentially we could give some advance notice to folks managing these ecosystems in southern California that, hey, we’re hearing the blue whales start to migrate south, you might have a lot of them showing up here quite soon.

Predicting whale movements via their songs may be particularly useful for this blue whale population, which is commonly struck by shipping vessels, Oestreich says.

During the summer feeding season in high latitudes, male blue whales tend to sing at night.

In general, the head is intermediate in shape between that of the blue whale and that of the fin whale.

The top of the head is flat, though slightly less than that of the blue whale.

The rostrum is narrower and more V-shaped than that of the blue whale and has the same sort of single distinctive head ridge.

The head is quite broad and rounded, somewhat like that of the blue whale.

The only other rorqual to do so—the blue whale—raises the flukes slightly or not at all.

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blueweedblue whistler