killer whale
killer whale noun: a sea mammal related to dolphins and porpoises (Orcinus orca).
Noun
killer whale (plural killer whales)
- A sea mammal related to dolphins and porpoises (Orcinus orca).
- Of this whale, little is known to the Nantucketer, and nothing at all to the professed naturalist. From what I have seen of him at a distance, I should say that he was about the bigness of a grampus. He is very savage - a sort of Feegee fish. He sometimes takes the great Folio whales by the lip and...1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
- Once or twice, too, I saw the killer-whale (Orca gladiator), the little species so readily known by its prominent back-fin.1893, Fridtjof Nansen, The First Crossing of Greenland, Longmans, Green, and Company, page 89
killer whale meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Tagalog and Arabic
killer whale in Tamil
- a sea mammal, ''Orcinus orca''
- திமிஙகளம் timiṅakaḷam
killer whale in Marathi
- a sea mammal, ''Orcinus orca''
- हिंसक देवमासा hiusak devmāsā, ऑर्का ŏrkā
killer whale in Tagalog
- a sea mammal, ''Orcinus orca''
- orka
killer whale in Arabic
- a sea mammal, ''Orcinus orca''
- حُوت قَاتِل ḥūt qātil
More languagesFewer languages
- killer whale in Indonesian
- paus pembunuh
- killer whale in Persian
- نهنگ قاتل nahang-e qâtel
- killer whale in Thai
- วาฬเพชฌฆาต waan-pét-chá-kâat
- killer whale in Vietnamese
- cá voi sát thủ
Synonyms of killer whale
Forms of killer whale
| plural | killer whales |
|---|
Origin of killer whale
Calque or mistranslation of Spanish asesina-ballenas (“whale killer”), referring to their tendency to hunt whales. Equivalent to killer + whale.
Words formed from killer whale
Questions about killer whale
- What does killer whale mean?
- Killer whale means a sea mammal related to dolphins and porpoises (Orcinus orca).
- What is killer whale in Tamil?
- Killer whale in Tamil is திமிஙகளம் (timiṅakaḷam). See Killer whale meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is killer whale?
- Killer whale is a noun.
- What is the plural of killer whale?
- The plural of killer whale is killer whales.
Words near killer whale in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: killer whale (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-killer whale.wav.
Cite this entry: “killer whale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/killer_whale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.