cetacean
pronunciation
How to pronounce cetacean in British English:
UK [sɪˈteɪʃn]
How to pronounce cetacean in American English:
US [sɪˈteɪʃn]
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- Noun:
- large aquatic carnivorous mammal with fin-like forelimbs no hind limbs, including: whales; dolphins; porpoises; narwhals
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- Adjective:
- of or relating to whales and dolphins etc
Word Origin
- cetacean (n.)
- 1836, from Cetacea, name of the order of marine mammals, + -an. As an adjective from 1839.
Example
- 1. The sperm whale is believe to dive deeper than any other cetacean .
- 2. The sperm whale is believed to dive deeper than any other cetacean .
- 3. Both the methods and the findings are the first of their kind , according to laela sayigh , a cetacean biologist at the woods hole oceanographic institution in massachusetts .
- 4. Cetacean brains are also , scaled appropriately for body size , almost as big as those of humans and significantly bigger than those of great apes , which are usually thought of as humanity 's closest intellectual cousins .
- 5. The marine biologists now hope to use the system to collect more reliable data on cetacean numbers and movements , affording further clues to their behaviour .