sea otter

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noun

a marine otter, Enhydra lutris, of the shores of the northern Pacific, with a very valuable fur: now greatly reduced in number and rare in many areas.

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Origin of sea otter

First recorded in 1655–65

Words nearby sea otter

séance, sea nettle, sea oats, Sea of Tranquillity, sea onion, sea otter, sea palm, sea pen, seaperch, seapiece, sea pigeon

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use sea otter in a sentence

Scientists already knew sea otters have an extreme metabolism.
Here’s how sea otters stay warm without blubber or a large body|Jaime Chambers|August 11, 2021|Science News For Students
However, they can also give off heat via a process called nonshivering thermogenesis, which Wright and his team suspected was crucial for the sea otters.
Sea otters defy our understanding of metabolism|Claire Maldarelli|July 9, 2021|Popular-Science
“This could be a game changer in terms of how we think about the evolution of all marine mammals, not just sea otters,” says Terrie Williams, an ecophysiologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the study.
Sea otters stay warm thanks to leaky mitochondria in their muscles|Jaime Chambers|July 8, 2021|Science News
Nutrient-rich urchins in the healthy kelp offer sea otters a far better snack.
Urchin takeover underlies California’s vanishing kelp forests|Anushree Dave|May 7, 2021|Science News For Students

They found that sea otters were eating three times as many sea urchins as they were before 2014, but they were being picky.
How kelp forests off California are responding to an urchin takeover|Anushree Dave|March 29, 2021|Science News
My dad was a sailor, and all through my childhood he was away half of the time at sea, and to an extent I have a similar job.
Belle & Sebastian Aren’t So Shy Anymore|James Joiner|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
It is the only tourist center Ukraine has left on the Black Sea, since Russia annexed Crimea last spring.
Is Putin Turning to Terrorism in Ukraine?|Anna Nemtsova|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The wreckage lies no more than around 100 feet down in the Java Sea.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?|Clive Irving|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
And for those on the Palestinian right who still dream of driving the Jews into the sea, they too can forget it.
In the Middle East, the Two-State Solution Is Dead|Dean Obeidallah|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Search teams find dozens of people and jet debris floating in the Java Sea, as the airline confirms the wreckage is from QZ8501.
Wreckage, Bodies of AirAsia Crash Found|Lennox Samuels|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Edna did not reveal so much as all this to Madame Ratignolle that summer day when they sat with faces turned to the sea.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin
Edna Pontellier, casting her eyes about, had finally kept them at rest upon the sea.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin
The countries about the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea and its adjoining waters.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift
All things that are of the earth, shall return to the earth again, and all waters shall return to the sea.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version|Various
Worst danger zone, the open sea, now traversed, but on land not yet out of the wood.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I|Ian Hamilton

British Dictionary definitions for sea otter

sea otter

noun

a large marine otter, Enhydra lutris, of N Pacific coasts, formerly hunted for its thick dark brown fur

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