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whale shark

/weɪl.ʃɑːk/

whale shark noun: a very large spotted shark, Rhincodon typus, of warm marine waters, similar to a whale, that feeds by filtering plankton from the water.

whale shark: a very large spotted shark, Rhincodon typus, of warm marine waters, similar to a whale, that feeds...
Image: Zac Wolf, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

whale shark (plural whale sharks)

  1. A very large spotted shark, Rhincodon typus, of warm marine waters, similar to a whale, that feeds by filtering plankton from the water.
    • The largest fish in the world is a shark. It is a harmless plankton eater, and its name, whale shark has been confusing people for years.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 42

whale shark meaning in Tamil, Tagalog and Thai

whale shark in Tamil

வெப்பமண்டலப் பெருஞ் சுறாமீன் வகை, திமிங்கிலச் சுறா

whale shark in Tagalog

Rhincodon typus
butanding, isdangtuko

whale shark in Thai

Rhincodon typus
ฉลามวาฬ chà-lǎam-waan
More languagesFewer languages
Dhivehi
ފެހުރިހި fehurihi

Forms of whale shark

pluralwhale sharks

Questions about whale shark

What does whale shark mean?
Whale shark means a very large spotted shark, Rhincodon typus, of warm marine waters, similar to a whale, that feeds by filtering plankton from the water.
What is whale shark in Tamil?
Whale shark in Tamil is வெப்பமண்டலப் பெருஞ் சுறாமீன் வகை, திமிங்கிலச் சுறா. See Whale shark meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is whale shark?
Whale shark is a noun.
How do you pronounce whale shark?
Whale shark is pronounced /weɪl.ʃɑːk/.
What is the plural of whale shark?
The plural of whale shark is whale sharks.

Words near whale shark in the dictionary

  1. whale oil
  2. whale oils
  3. whale on
  4. whale safari
  5. whale safaris
  6. whale shark
  7. whale sharks
  8. whale shot
  9. whale tail
  10. whale tails
  11. whale watch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whale shark (page history and authors); whale shark (Tamil Wiktionary) (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)-Vealhurl-whale shark.wav.

Cite this entry: “whale shark.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whale_shark. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.