Meaning & use
whale bone
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
The skeletal bone of a whale, such as a rib or jawbone, sometimes used in building or crafts.
Grammar: Countable for one bone: a whale bone; uncountable for the material: carved from whale bone.
Patterns
- a whale bone from something
The museum displays a huge whale bone found on the beach.
Villagers once used a whale bone as an arch over the gate.
A single whale bone can be several meters long.
noununcountableold-fashioned
The flexible, horn-like baleen plates from a whale's mouth, once used to stiffen corsets and umbrellas.
Grammar: Usually written as one word, whalebone, in this sense.
Patterns
- made of whale bone
Victorian corsets were often stiffened with whale bone.
The umbrella frame was made of whale bone and silk.
Word forms
| plural | whale bones |
|---|
Common combinations
- carved whale bone
- The museum has carved whale bone from the 1800s.
- a giant whale bone
- A giant whale bone was lying on the shore.
- whale bone corset
- The whale bone corset was uncomfortable and stiff.
- whale bone arch
- The park entrance is a whale bone arch.
- stiffened with whale bone
- Collars were stiffened with whale bone.
Synonyms and how they differ
- baleen
- Baleen is the correct word for the plates in a whale's mouth, while whale bone for these is an older and inaccurate name.
- whalebone
- Whalebone as one word is the traditional spelling for the material, while whale bone as two words usually means an actual skeleton bone.
- rib
- A rib is one specific bone, whereas whale bone covers any bone of the animal.
Word family
Commonly confused: whale bone or baleen?
whale bone vs baleen
Baleen is the filter-feeding plates in some whales' mouths, not bone, even though older products called it whalebone.
Practice
The Victorian corset was stiffened with strips of ___.
Choose one answer.
Whalebone, really baleen, was the traditional flexible stiffener for corsets. Cotton is too soft and granite is too hard and heavy.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “whale bone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.