Meaning & use
the whale
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Meanings
nouncountable
A very large sea animal that breathes air through a hole on top of its head and looks like a fish.
Grammar: Use 'a whale' for one, 'whales' for more than one. With 'the', it can mean a particular whale or the whole kind.
Patterns
- a whale
- the whale
- whales
The whale surfaced near the boat and blew water from its blowhole.
We saw a whale in the ocean during our holiday.
The blue whale is the largest animal on Earth.
nouncountableinformal
A very large person or thing, often used informally to mean something big and impressive.
Grammar: Used in informal speech, often in phrases like 'a whale of a time'.
Patterns
- a whale of a something
We had a whale of a time at the party.
That new car is a whale of a machine.
Word forms
| plural | whales |
|---|
Common combinations
- blue whale
- The blue whale can grow up to 30 meters long.
- humpback whale
- We went whale watching and saw a humpback whale.
- a pod of whales
- A pod of whales swam past our boat.
- whale watching
- Whale watching is a popular tourist activity in this area.
Synonyms and how they differ
- leviathan
- A literary or biblical word for a huge sea creature, often a whale.
Word family
- whaling noun
- The activity of hunting whales.
- whalebone noun
- A hard material from the upper jaw of some whales.
Commonly confused: the whale or wail?
the whale vs wail
'Wail' sounds the same as 'whale' but means to make a long, high cry of pain or sadness. 'Whale' is the sea animal.
Practice
While we were sailing, we saw ______ jump out of the water.
Choose one answer.
'A whale' is the correct noun for the animal. 'A wail' is a cry of pain, 'whale' without an article is not used for a single animal, and 'the wail' is not an animal.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “the whale”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.