whale

B1 Topic:Animals

US /weɪl/ See IPA manual

Homophones

wail /weɪl/ wale /weɪl/

Minimal pairs

Sounds like well /ɛ/ vs /eɪ/ Sounds like vail /v/ vs /w/

Freq #4897

Meanings

1

noun
A very large mammal that lives in the sea and breathes air through a hole on top of its head.

We watched a huge whale rise to the surface and blow a jet of water into the air.
2

noun
A person who gambles or spends extremely large amounts of money.

The casino rolled out the red carpet for the whale who bet thousands on every hand.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a very large mammal that... cetacean

2 noun · a person who gambles or... high roller

Word family

Forms whales

Related forms baleen cachalotcetegam narwhalorcapodrorqualwalrus

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

sperm whale
a large toothed whale whose head contains the waxy substance spermaceti

Noun + noun

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos Proto-Germanic *hwalaz Proto-West Germanic *hwal Old English hwæl Middle English whal English whale From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara,…

whal Middle English hwæl Old English *hwal Proto-West Germanic *hwalaz Proto-Germanic *(s)kʷálos Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals

External links

# whale

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /weɪl/
**Frequency rank:** 4897

## Meanings
1. A very large mammal that lives in the sea and breathes air through a hole on top of its head.
2. A person who gambles or spends extremely large amounts of money.

## Examples
- We watched a huge whale rise to the surface and blow a jet of water into the air.
- The casino rolled out the red carpet for the whale who bet thousands on every hand.

## Related Forms
- baleen
- cachalot
- cete
- gam
- narwhal
- orca
- pod
- rorqual
- walrus

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: whal
- Root: hwæl
- Root: *hwal
- Root: *hwalaz
- Root: *(s)kʷálos

## Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos Proto-Germanic *hwalaz Proto-West Germanic *hwal Old English hwæl Middle English whal English whale From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara,…

## AI Etymology
Whale's history includes Middle English whal, Old English hwæl, Proto-West Germanic *hwal, Proto-Germanic *hwalaz, and Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos. In present-day use, it can mean a very large mammal that lives in the sea and breathes air through a hole on top of its head, or a person who gambles or spends extremely large amounts of money. Related words include baleen, cachalot, cete, gam, narwhal.

## Topics
- Animals

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