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

What happened when all the new animals in the north killed off the arctic foxes and belugas and narwhals and polar bears that already lived there?

From Literature

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

Related Words

• mammal
• porpoise