narwhal

American  

[nahr-wuhl] / ˈnɑr wəl /

Also narwal,

noun

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

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narwhal British  

/ ˈnɑːˌweɪl, ˈnɑːwəl /

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

• narwhalian adjective

Etymology

Origin of narwhal

First recorded in 1650–60; from Scandinavian; compare Norwegian, Swedish, Danish nar(h)val, reshaped from Old Norse nāhvalr, equivalent to nār “corpse” + hvalr whale ¹; allegedly so called because its skin resembles that of a human corpse

Example Sentences

Another explorer, Martin Nweeia, a dental surgeon, discovered that a narwhal’s tusk, whose purpose was a mystery to scientists, is actually a sensory rod that helps it measure salinity, temperature and water pressure.

From The Wall Street Journal

In seven years on The Times’s National Desk, I wrote about everything from natural disasters to narwhals.

From New York Times

Menopause is known to exist in five species of toothed whale: short-finned pilot whales, false killer whales, killer whales, narwhals and beluga whales.

From Science Daily

They found females of five "menopausal" species - narwhals and beluga, short-finned pilot, false killer and killer whales - lived about four decades longer than other toothed whales.

From BBC

Five whale species — killer whales, false killer whales, beluga whales, short-finned pilot whales and narwhals — don’t fit that pattern.

From New York Times

Related Words

• mammal
• porpoise