How do you use the word "whale" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "whale": We are having a whale of a time. Throw a sprat to catch a whale.

Whale Meaning

/ˈweɪ̯l/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounAny one of numerous large marine mammals comprising an informal group within infraorder Cetacea that usually excludes dolphins and porpoises.

nounAny large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.

Sentence Examples

We are having a whale of a time.

Throw a sprat to catch a whale.

A whale is a fish. True or false?

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

giant heavyweight

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The huge ____, which is the largest animal, spouted water from its blowhole.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

We were lucky enough to see a massive blue ____ while we were on a boat trip in the ocean last year today.

Word Origin & History

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos Proto-Germanic *hwalaz Proto-West Germanic *hwal Old English hwæl Middle English whal English whale 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”)).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"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." — 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 1:21:

"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." — 2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian:

"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." — 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2019:

"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." — 1947 May 19, John Chamberlain, “Will Clayton and his Problem”, in Life, page 120:

"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, […]" — 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5:

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