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 Tranquility, 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. 2023

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
Of marine mammals the most characteristic are the sea-lion, fur-seal, sea-otter and harbour-seal.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3|Various
"It was only a sea-otter," I tried to explain, thinking perhaps she did not care for snake stories.
In Search of the Unknown|Robert W. Chambers
The sea otter is among the swiftest swimmers of the mammals, but no air-breathing creature can compete in speed with a shark.
Wild Folk|Samuel Scoville
Within the house he saw chief Nas-nas-shup clothed in his robe of prime sea otter skins.
Indian Legends of Vancouver Island|Alfred Carmichael
The skins of the sea otter are much prized by the Chinese, who pay for them from seventy to one hundred roubles a-piece.
The Desert World|Arthur Mangin

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