whale
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: wāl
ipa: /weɪl/
note: without the wine–whine merger
enpr: hwāl
ipa: /ʍeɪl/
note: without the wine–whine merger
rhymes: -eɪl
homophone: wail
homophone: wale (wine–whine merger)
Forms: form: whales
Etymology: From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara, “kind of fish”)).
Senses: examples: text: And God created great whales, and euery liuing creature that moueth, which the waters brought forth aboundantly after their kinde, and euery winged foule after his kinde: and God saw that it was good.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 1:21:
text: Whale oil was still moderately useful for several things, and whale lives were valueless. Dead whales were used to soften leather and lubricate machines and to somewhat mitigate the effects of trench foot in the first world war.
ref: 2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian:
synonyms: word: baleen
glosses: Any one of numerous large marine mammals comprising an informal group within infraorder Cetacea that usually excludes dolphins and porpoises.
examples: text: The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.
ref: 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2019:
glosses: Any species of Cetacea.
examples: text: It was a whale of a job. […] It took two months, and the fair blush of youth off my cheeks.
ref: 1920 September, “A Reformed Free Lance” (pseudonym), “Doctoring a Sick Encyclopedia”, in The Writer, Volume XXXII, Number 9, page 131
text: But when it comes to his business life and business career, Will Clayton is not as other men; he is such a whale of a lot better that it suggests a qualitative as well as a quantitative difference.
ref: 1947 May 19, John Chamberlain, “Will Clayton and his Problem”, in Life, page 120:
text: Passing the Congregation Shearith Israel on Central Park West (a white whale of a building with a triangular pediment supported by four count ’em four massive Corinthian columns), Professor Solanka scurrying through the downpour remembered the newly bat-mitzvahed thirteen-year-old girl he’d glimpsed through the side door, […]
ref: 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5:
glosses: Something, or someone, that is very large.
examples: text: My own father only wrote one poem in his life as far as I know, but it was a whale of a lyric, the kind you would give your whole life to write, which he did, but that is another story.
ref: 2002, Kathleen Benson, Philip M. Kayal, Museum of the City of New York, A Community of Many Worlds: Arab Americans in New York City, Syracuse University Press →ISBN, page 54
text: Busley Crowther in The New York Times called it “a whale of a comedy” even though he couldn't tell the four musicians apart except for Ringo (“the big-nosed one”).
ref: 2006, June Skinner Sawyers, Read the Beatles: Classic and New Writings on the Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter, Penguin, →ISBN:
text: They were having a whale of a time when a very stern looking shop assistant came over to tell them off.
ref: 2013, Fred Holtby, Chris Lovie, ROWDY - THE STORY OF A POLICE DOG, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 105:
glosses: Something, or someone, that is excellent.
raw_tags: as "whale of a ___"
examples: text: These are often no-limit games as maximum bets cramp a whale’s style.
ref: 2003, Jeff Wuorio, How to Buy and Sell (Just About) Everything:
text: A handful of the richest whales routinely play for $200,000 a hand. Australian media mogul Kerry Packer not only regularly bets that much, but has plunked down $200,000 bets for the dealer as a form of a tip.
ref: 2004, Norm Clarke, Vegas Confidential: Norm! Sin City's Ace Insider 1,000 Naked Truths, Hot Spots and Cool Stuff:
text: The high roller who had the most ferocious reputation for trying to run the business of the casinos where he played, before he died on December 26, 2006, was Kerry Packer. In the casino world, Packer was the Prince of Whales.
ref: 2008, Deke Castleman, Whale Hunt in the Desert:
topics: gambling
games
synonyms: high roller
glosses: A gambler who routinely wagers large amounts of money.
examples: text: If the banks knew how big Archegos’s position was, they may have realized other banks were supplying it with the same leverage — and reconsidered the trade. But a set of worrisome regulatory loopholes kept them from detecting this lurking whale.
ref: 2021 May 18, Alexis Goldstein, “These Invisible Whales Could Sink the Economy”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
topics: business
finance
glosses: An investor who deals with very large amounts of money.
examples: text: Whales are the big spenders who drop huge amounts of money into a game.
ref: 2015, Jamie Madigan, Getting Gamers: The Psychology of Video Games and Their Impact on the People who Play Them:
text: These different customer groups will be attracted to very different promotions. Your whales might enjoy receiving frequent emails from you and will purchase almost every time.
ref: 2015, Omer Artun, Dominique Levin, Predictive Marketing: Easy Ways Every Marketer Can Use Customer Analytics and Big Data, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 99:
text: […] gleaned from their activity: one group they dubbed “whales,” the highest-value customers, who bought shave cream and wipes as well as razors; […]
ref: 2020, Lawrence Ingrassia, Billion Dollar Brand Club: How Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, and Other Disruptors Are Remaking What We Buy, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN:
topics: business
marketing
glosses: A person who spends large amounts of money on things that are marketed to them.
examples: text: The whale is still snoring. He's a real beauty, the whale. Got this thick curly hair all over his chest and stomach and legs.
ref: 1983, Paul T. Rogers, Saul's Book:
glosses: An overweight person (usually a woman)
Synonyms: word: whale
Hypernyms: word: mammal
word: animal
Hyponyms: word: blue whale
word: fin whale
word: humpback whale
word: orca
word: sperm whale
word: gam
word: pod
Coordinate terms: word: dolphin
word: porpoise
word: fish
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaena mysticetus
word: Arctic whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: parvorder Mysticeti
translation: parvorder Mysticeti
word: baleen whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: beached whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: family Ziphiidae
translation: family Ziphiidae
word: beaked whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: belly of the whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: Belly of the Whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Delphinapterus leucas
word: beluga whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: family Balaenidae
translation: family Balaenidae
word: black whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera musculus
word: blue whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: family Balaenidae
translation: family Balaenidae
word: bone whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: bottlenose whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaena mysticetus
word: bowhead whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera brydei
word: Bryde's whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: caaing whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Globicephala melas
word: ca'ing whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: desert whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera edeni
word: Eden's whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: fail whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Pseudorca crassidens
word: false killer whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera physalus
word: finback whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera physalus
word: fin whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Eschrichtius robustus
word: gray whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Eschrichtius robustus
word: grey whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: family Balaenidae
translation: family Balaenidae
word: great whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaena mysticetus
word: Greenland whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: have a whale of a time
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Megaptera novaeangliae
word: humpback whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaena mysticetus
word: ice whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera physalus
word: Jupiter whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Orcinus orca
word: killer whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: land whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Delphinapterus leucas
word: melon-headed whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera bonaerensis
word: minke whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Monodon monoceros
word: narwhale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Monodon monoceros
word: narwhal
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera omurai
word: Omura's whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera bonaerensis
word: piked whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera bonaerensis
word: pike whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Globicephala spp.
word: pilot whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaena mysticetus
word: polar whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera borealis
word: pollack whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Globicephala spp.
word: pothead whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Caperea marginata
word: pygmy right whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera physalus
word: razorback whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera ricei
word: Rice's whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: right whale dolphin
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: family Balaenidae
translation: family Balaenidae
word: right whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaena mysticetus
word: Russian whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Eschrichtius gibbosus
word: scrag whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera borealis
word: sei whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: social whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: spade-toothed whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Physeter catodon
alt: syn. Physeter macrocephalus
word: sperm whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
roman: syn. Physeter macrocephalus
taxonomic: Physeter catodon
alt: syn. Physeter macrocephalus
word: spermaceti whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaena mysticetus
word: steeple-top whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera musculus
word: sulfur-bottom whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Balaenoptera musculus
word: sulphur whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: thick as a whale omelette
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Orcinus orca
word: thrasher whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Orcinus orca
word: thresher whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: parvorder Odontoceti
translation: parvorder Odontoceti
word: toothed whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: toothless whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Monodon monoceros
word: unicorn whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: very like a whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: walking whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale-backed
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale bacon
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale barnacle
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whaleboat
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whalebone
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: family Balaenidae
translation: family Balaenidae
word: whalebone whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale catcher
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: family Cetopsidae
translation: family Cetopsidae
word: whale catfish
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale fall
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale fisher
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: order Cetomimiformes
translation: order Cetomimiformes
word: whalefish
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whalelike
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale line
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whaleling
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whalelore
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
english: family Cyamidae
translation: family Cyamidae
word: whale louse
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whaleman
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whalemeat
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale oil
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale-path
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whaler
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale-road
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whalery
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale safari
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale's guide
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Rhincodon typus
word: whale shark
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whaleship
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whaleshit
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale shot
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whalesong
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whalespeak
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale's road
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Remora australis
word: whalesucker
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale's way
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale tail
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale watch
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale watcher
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whale watching
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whaling
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: whippo
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
taxonomic: Delphinapterus leucas
word: white whale
sense: terms derived from whale (noun)
word: wholphin
Related terms: word: narwhal
word: rorqual
word: walrus
sense: other associated terms
word: baleen
sense: other associated terms
word: cachalot
sense: other associated terms
word: cete
sense: other associated terms
word: gam
sense: other associated terms
word: orca
sense: other associated terms
word: pod