dugong

American  

[doo-gong, -gawng] / ˈdu gɒŋ, -gɔŋ /

noun

1. an herbivorous, aquatic mammal, Dugong dugon, of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, having a barrel-shaped body, flipperlike forelimbs, no hind limbs, and a triangular tail: widespread but rare.

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dugong British  

/ ˈduːɡɒŋ /

noun

1. a whalelike sirenian mammal, Dugong dugon, occurring in shallow tropical waters from E Africa to Australia: family Dugongidae

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Etymology

Origin of dugong

1790–1800; < New Latin < German: first recorded as dugung, apparently misrepresentation of Malay duyung, or a cognate Austronesian word

Compare meaning

How does dugong compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• dugong vs. manatee

Example Sentences

The team also identified a previously unknown species of ancient sea cow that was much smaller than modern dugongs.

From Science Daily

The goal was to document a seafloor famously lush in seagrass, corals, turtles, dugongs, rays and sharks.

From Los Angeles Times

A woman dressed as a dugong, a rare marine mammal, beseeched passers-by to end the burning of fossil fuels.

From New York Times

It also meant getting preapproval from authorities, dragging the dugong through security and dressing into its heavy felt in the still-hot desert environment of Dubai’s Expo City, where COP28 is taking place.

From Seattle Times

This characteristic, called pachyosteosclerosis, is absent in living cetaceans - the group including whales, dolphins and porpoises - but present in sirenians, another marine mammal group including manatees and dugongs.

From Reuters