mako

[mey-koh, mah-]

noun

plural

makos 

1. a powerful mackerel shark, Isurus oxyrinchus, of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

mako

¹

/ ˈmɑːkəʊ /

noun

1. any shark of the genus Isurus, esp I. glaucus of Indo-Pacific and Australian seas: family Isuridae

2. the teeth of the mako worn as a decoration by early Māoris

mako

²

/ ˈmɑːkəʊˌmɑːkəʊ, ˈmɑːkəʊ /

noun

1. Also called: wineberry. a small evergreen New Zealand tree, Aristotelia serrata: family Elaeocarpaceae

2. another name for bellbird

Word History and Origins

Origin of mako¹

Borrowed into English from Maori around 1720–30

Word History and Origins

Origin of mako¹

from Māori

Origin of mako²

from Māori

Example Sentences

He had served on the delegation’s animals committee since 2000, guiding governmental actions to protect mako sharks, iguanas, and Mexican crocodiles.

Read more on Science Magazine

“A few years ago there was a pesky mako shark that kept circling in on a few paddlers,” Gair recalled, “but it just lost interest eventually and turned away.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Moreover, if the restrictions are enforced, “mako sharks are fighters,” he says, and they will be so stressed and exhausted fighting the line or the net that they’ll die anyway after they’re caught.

Read more on National Geographic

Brazil's environmental protection agency, Ibama, estimated that approximately 11,000 blue sharks and shortfin mako sharks were killed to make up a haul of that size.

Read more on BBC

But the observation came back to him around 2011, when he was tracking blue and shortfin mako sharks traversing the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more on Science Magazine