whale

CEFRB1

/ˈweɪ̯l/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A very large sea animal that breathes air.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Any species of Cetacea.

Examples

  • A whale is a fish. True or false?

  • Throw a sprat to catch a whale.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
3

Also pronounced

  • /ˈw̥eɪ̯l/
  • /ˈʍeɪ̯l/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Something, or someone, that is very large.

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

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

More examples

In context

  • We are having a whale of a time.

  • It was a whale of a job. […] It took two months, and the fair blush of youth off my cheeks.

  • 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.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

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

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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”)).