Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See whalebone.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A whale.
- n. The sea-bream.
- n. Whalebone in its natural state: a name given by whale-fishers.
Wiktionary
- n. physiology, uncountable The plates in the mouth of the baleen whale, Mysticeti, which it uses to trap its food; formerly used in corsetry
- n. zoology, countable a baleen whale
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl. & Com.) Plates or blades of “whalebone,” from two to twelve feet long, and sometimes a foot wide, which in certain whales (
Balænoidea ) are attached side by side along the upper jaw, and form a fringelike sieve by which the food is retained in the mouth.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a horny material from the upper jaws of certain whales; used as the ribs of fans or as stays in corsets
Etymologies
- From Old French baleine ("whale, whalebone"), from Latin balaena ("whale"), from Ancient Greek φάλαινα ("whale"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English balene, from Old French baleine, from Latin balaena, whale, from Greek phalaina; see bhel-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The fact that the krill are strained out of the water by the baleen is a matter of processing - it comes after the whale has taken a bite.”
Lunging is expensive, jaws can be noisy, and what’s with the asymmetry? Rorquals part III
“We do know that its baleen is particularly fine, allowing it to filter the comparatively small copepods [adjacent photo, also from the Right Whale Aerial Surveys site, shows a feeding sei.”
Lunging is expensive, jaws can be noisy, and what’s with the asymmetry? Rorquals part III
“The baleen is a horny material on the upper jaws of some whales.”
“Many modern whale species use hair-like structures called baleen to filter tiny prey such as krill from seawater.”
“I need to use the word "baleen" in a sentence today.”
“The strange 52 hertz deep sea noise is not only from a whale, but, based on the noise's characteristics, is most definitely from a kind of baleen whale, says”
“They can only subsist on such small morsels because they eat vast quantities at a time, thanks to the "baleen" plates (pictured) they have instead of teeth.”
“baleen" or "whalebone" -- each plank being as much as eight or in rare cases twelve feet long.”
“baleen," fringed plates made of keratin - the same protein that forms our hair and fingernails.”
“Several species of baleen whales, among them the fin and humpback whales Balaenoptera physalus (EN) and Megaptera novaeangliae (VU), and toothed whales, including sperm Physeter catodon (VU), pilot and killer whales are regularly seen.”
Galápagos National Park & Galápagos Marine Resources Reserve, Ecuador
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘baleen’.
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
-
snarkout's Words
agenbite, scandent, vulpine, ratel, corvid, magpie, meline, musteline, ecdysiast, waxwing, abecedarian, guillotine and 111 more...
-
cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
-
Whaleworthy & Piratical Words
A list of favorite nautical words to be sprinkled liberally throughout speech for piratical or Melvillian effect.
batten down, back and fill, beamy, baulking, beckets, bilge, bold shore, boomjumper, breaker, larboard, abaft, ash breeze and 156 more...
-
Just 'cause I like 'em, B
bloviate, bejesus, brouhaha, behoove, bodacious, bamboozle, banshee, bub, bolus, blob, bubbly, bleb and 414 more...
-
19 c.
some of the interesting words i've had to look up while reading 19th century lit
maugre, connate, alembic, azote, vaticination, valetudinarian, dight, scutcheon, lammergeyer, chamois, asseverate, prebendary and 199 more...
-
Pet Names
...As in Lovers
-
ifjuly's list
favorite words. some are made up injokes between me and my husband or family.
skein, zaftig, july, bed, orifice, aesthete, ink, parce-que, desormais, cake, pusillanimous, pulse and 531 more...
-
whaling terms
Terms defined in the glossary of Clifford W. Ashley's "Yankee Whaler".
advance, adze, after house, after oar, agent, air up, alow, ambergris, apeak, article, away, bailer and 299 more...
-
spamdad's Words
lambic, weizenbock, bock, zymurgy, vade mecum, quotidian, sesquipedalian, eremite, sphragis, privation, aegis, sui generis and 275 more...
-
SomeOldDoor's list
Lovely words.
clover, cedar, bromide, glyph, belfry, glance, vehemently, well, flourish, plaintive, clarion, element and 169 more...
-
Thunderfoot's Words
lugubrious, salacious, vituperative, foist, foment, embolism, stygian, mellifluous, bildungsroman, shirk, crone, elide and 173 more...
-
Words I Enjoy Saying
callosity, pelagic, mysticete, cetacea, callosities, tibia, fabulous, peduncle, baleen, rorqual, irrawaddy, masticate and 1 more...
-
❀ ✿ ✺ words for nature
words dealing with nature, flowers, animals, the sea, etc.
gloaming, geodesic, aeolian, gyre, loamy, honeysuckle, musk, love-lies-bleeding, thistle, etiolated, tidal, filament and 37 more...
-
What Joanna Wrote
Words written (and then sung) by the talented Ms. Newsom.
malleable, burnie, wishy-washy, baleen, kith, chim-choo-ree, rosemary, nautical, fumbling, catalyst, ululate, panopticon and 5 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for baleen.
bilby "There is armour made from whale baleen. Many of the graves also contain flat stones, which presumably have some kind of ceremonial purpose.
...
Researchers can also call on human memory and lore, because Nuvuk retained human inhabitants until about 60 years ago."
- 'Bodies Point To Alaska's Past', Richard Black, BBC website 31 Dec 2007
Jan 1, 2008