DEFINITIONS

narwhal

[ nahr-wuh l ]
/ ˈnɑr wəl /
SEE SYNONYMS FOR narwhal ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a small arctic whale, Monodon monoceros, the male of which has a long, spirally twisted tusk extending forward from the upper jaw.

Content related to narwhal

Where Did Narwhals Get Their Name?It’s likely no surprise that around here, we delight in animals with interesting names—from zedonk to beefalo. One of the few creatures that can top the zedonk for linguistic and zoological oddness  is the narwhal. If you’ve ever seen a creature that looks like a whale with a unicorn horn, you might imagine it’s been Photoshopped. But that’s not fiction—that’s a narwhal. Where did the …
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Words related to narwhal

mammal, porpoise, whopper, cetacean, grampus, baleen, finback, beluga, rorqual, orca, ceta, cete, orc, sei

Words nearby narwhal

narrows, narthex, narva, narvik, narváez, narwhal, nary, nary a, nas/uwt, nasa, nasal
Also nar·wal, nar·whale [nahr-hweyl, -weyl] /ˈnɑrˌʰweɪl, -ˌweɪl/.

Origin of narwhal

1650–60; < Scandinavian; compare Norwegian, Swedish, Danish nar(h)val, reshaped from Old Norse nāhvalr, equivalent to nār corpse + hvalr whale1; allegedly so called because its skin resembles that of a human corpse

OTHER WORDS FROM narwhal

nar·whal·i·an [nahr-hwey-lee-uh n, -wey-, -wol-ee-] /nɑrˈʰweɪ li ən, -ˈweɪ-, -ˈwɒl i-/, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for narwhal

British Dictionary definitions for narwhal

narwhal

narwal narwhale (ˈnɑːˌweɪl)

/ (ˈnɑːwəl) /

noun

an arctic toothed whale, Monodon monoceros, having a black-spotted whitish skin and, in the male, a long spiral tusk: family Monodontidae

Word Origin for narwhal

C17: of Scandinavian origin; compare Danish, Norwegian narhval, from Old Norse nāhvalr, from nār corpse + hvalr whale, from its white colour, supposed to resemble a human corpse
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