whale

Pronunciation

• enPR: wāl, IPA ^(key): /weɪl/
• SAMPA: /weIl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: wail (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

Singular whale

Plural whales

A whale

1. (countable) A whale is a large animal that lives in the ocean.

   Some whales with teeth eat fish, but many whales don't have teeth.

   Dolphins and small whales have also been hunted in the waters of the Caribbean for many years.

Related words

• whaler
• a whale of a tale
• dolphin
• fish
• porpoise
• shark

Verb

Plain form whale

Third-person singular whales

Past tense whaled

Past participle whaled

Present participle whaling

1. (intransitive) If you whale, you hunt for whales.
2. (transitive) If you whale on something, you beat it hard repeatedly.