Word.ws English Dictionary

whale louse

whale louse noun: a parasitic amphipod crustacean of the family Cyamidae found in skin lesions, genital folds, nostrils and eyes of marine mammals of the order Cetacea, i.e. whales, dolphins and porpoises.

Noun

whale louse (plural whale lice)

  1. A parasitic amphipod crustacean of the family Cyamidae found in skin lesions, genital folds, nostrils and eyes of marine mammals of the order Cetacea, i.e. whales, dolphins and porpoises.
    • Crablike whale lice dig deeply into sores and cuts.1971 Mar, National Geographic, page 411
    Synonyms:
    cyamid

Synonyms of whale louse

Forms of whale louse

pluralwhale lice
alternative formwhalelouse
alternative formwhale-louse

Questions about whale louse

What does whale louse mean?
Whale louse means a parasitic amphipod crustacean of the family Cyamidae found in skin lesions, genital folds, nostrils and eyes of marine mammals of the order Cetacea, i.e. whales, dolphins and porpoises.
What part of speech is whale louse?
Whale louse is a noun.
What is the plural of whale louse?
The plural of whale louse is whale lice.

Words near whale louse in the dictionary

  1. whale falls
  2. whale fisher
  3. whale fishers
  4. whale lice
  5. whale line
  6. whale louse
  7. whale oil
  8. whale oils
  9. whale on
  10. whale safari
  11. whale safaris

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whale louse (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.

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