manatee

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large, slow-moving, plant-eating aquatic mammal of the genus Trichechus, with paddle-like flippers and a broad rounded tail

   The manatee surfaced beside the boat to breathe before returning to the seagrass bed.

Borrowed through Spanish manatí, probably from a Cariban language of the Caribbean or northern South America; the exact Indigenous source is uncertain and has sometimes been connected with a word for 'breast.' English manatee replaced earlier spellings such as manati.

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