minke whale

British

/ ˈmɪŋkə /

noun

Also called: minke. a type of small whalebone whale or rorqual, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, up to 10 metres long

"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

Etymology

Origin of minke whale

C20: probably from Norwegian minkehval, from minke lesser + hval whale

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:

minke whale

A minke whale in Long Beach Harbor and a gray whale that stranded in Huntington Beach also succumbed to the outbreak.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2025

A minke whale has beached and died at Portstewart Strand in County Londonderry.

From BBC ● May 26, 2025

Earlier this month, a minke whale that spent days swimming in Long Beach Harbor died — despite efforts by marine wildlife experts to reroute it back to deeper waters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2025

They can be identified by their lack of a dorsal fin and mottled appearance that makes them very different from whales more commonly seen off New England such as the humpback whale and minke whale.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 5, 2024

A minke whale nicknamed Snowy has set a European record for the number of years she has been seen.

From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2023

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023