Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various herbivorous aquatic mammals of the genus Trichechus, having paddlelike front flippers and a horizontally flattened tail and found in warm coastal waters of Florida, northern South America, West Africa, and the Caribbean.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A sea-cow; a gregarious herbivorous aquatic sirenian mammal, of the genus Manatus, family Manatidœ, and order Sirenia. The American manatee, to which the name was originally given, and to which it specially pertains, is Manatus americanus, australis, or latirostris, whether of one of two species. The manatee inhabits the shallow waters of rivers and estuaries on the eastern coast of tropical and subtropical America, from Florida and some of the West India islands to about lat. 20° S. It is a sluggish, timid, and in-offensive animal, found in small herds, feeding on aquatic vegetation, and attaining sometimes a length of 8 or 10 feet. In general aspect the manatee resembles a small whale or other cetacean, but it belongs to a different order, though it was formerly considered a herbivorous cetacean. The body is naked and stout, shaped like that of a fish, without trace of hind limbs, ending in an expansive shovel-or spoon-shaped tail; the fore limbs are flippers or paddles without outward distinction of digits, but with flattened nails; the eyes and ears are small; and the whole physiognomy is peculiar, owing to the tumidity and great mobility of the muzzle. There is an entirely distinct species, Manatus senegalensis, found on the western coast of Africa, to which the name extends.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of several plant-eating marine mammals, of family Trichechidae, found in tropical regions.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any species of Trichechus, a genus of sirenians; -- called also
sea cow .
WordNet 3.0
- n. sirenian mammal of tropical coastal waters of America; the flat tail is rounded
Etymologies
- From Spanish manatí, from a Cariban language. (Wiktionary)
- Spanish manatí, from Cariban manati·. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Whiskers the manatee is an ambassador for his imperiled species.”
“Needless to say, Debbie, the manatee is better looking & less obese than you.”
“This belief in mermen, possible originating with the caricatures of the human face in the intelligent seal and stupid manatee, is universal.”
“Granted, there are sirenian workers who have, indeed, suggested that Atlantic rifting might explain manatee distribution … but, those workers were publishing their papers in the early years of the 20th century (Arldt 1907)!”
“On this coast there was also a particular kind of fish called manatee, which is most excellent eating, and the flesh is more like beef than fish; the scales are as large as a shilling, and the skin thicker than I ever saw that of any other fish.”
“On this coast there was also a particular kind of fifth called manatee, which is most excellent eating, and the flesh is more like beef than fish; the scales are as large as a shilling, and the skin thicker than I ever saw that of any other fish.”
“The manatee has been the subject of just 14, and academic neglect may be a vital factor in its currently parlous position.”
“OF FISH & WILDLIFE: Exposure to water temperatures below 68 degrees for long periods of time can lead to a condition called manatee cold stress syndrome, that can eventually lead to death.”
“Exposure to water temperatures below 68 degrees for long periods of time can lead to a condition called manatee cold stress syndrome.”
“The dugong and the manatee are the descendants of vegetarian hoofed animals; seals, sea-lions and walruses are the descendants of carnivorous animals; beavers are the cousins of purely terrestrial rodents.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘manatee’.
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Crayon Colors
This is a continuing list of Crayon Colors past and present. As I find new ones added to the "box", I will add them here as well!
black, blue, brown, apricot, bittersweet, blue green, blue violet, brick red, burnt sienna, carnation pink, cornflower, flesh and 134 more...
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the (chained) unbearable cuteness of ...
You know what I'm talking about. Look for the images...
tapir, pangolin, pika, chunky baby chow ..., roundbelly cowfish, tree octopus, turtlenecked stra..., furze-pig, otter, bilby, wallaby, meerkat and 43 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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intueri's Words
inveigle, dolorous, archly, feckless, resplendent, concatenation, peripatetic, delightful, cookie, fey, ephemeral, effervescent and 347 more...
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known words
words wot i already knew
antisyzygy, calenture, shill, saudade, sehnsucht, squonk, steganographic, anomie, wiggy, grok, hermeneutics, agrise and 206 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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(more or less) Temporary Urth List
Temporary list is temporary.
Collecting a few words here, which are then to be alloted to other lists.vassal, gnaw, putrescence, liege, pederasty, disseminate, loot, waning, fitful, hiatuse, plow, pious and 292 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (M)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
mace, macintosh, madras, magenta, magic 8 ball, magma, mahogany, maiden, mail, mainsail, maize, malachite and 169 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Crayola Crayon Colors Circa 1998
almond, antique brass, apricot, aquamarine, asparagus, atomic tangerine, banana mania, beaver, bittersweet, black, blizzard blue, blue and 108 more...
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reza's list
man
human
humanism
humanity
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uncleosbert's Words
omphalaskepsis, gravid, steatopygian, marmalade, triffid, scurrilous, kith, lilliputian, slunk, snailular, milquetoast, elephantine and 191 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2008 more...
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Animals With Nifty Names
hamster, gerbil, ferret, horse, skink, newt, shark, octopus, weasel, panda, giraffe, hyena and 129 more...
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Palabrarium
The delicious wonderful words that I love terribly dearly and without which, the world would be a less inventive and worthwhile place. Also, ostensibly, the reason 1984 and esperanto secretly suck.
panoply, footpad, piccalilli, snickersnee, marl, hispid, greengage, slumgullion, golliwog, mumbletypeg, circumlocution, quiescent and 366 more...
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cucchiaio's Words
ambidextrous, octogenarian, unanimous, semaphore, luminous, indigenous, epistemological, ravenous, receptacle, petrify, rectify, lepidopterologist and 104 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for manatee.

yarb At the Zoo on 19.5.39. Much interest in the manatee, which I had only vaguely heard of before. An animal about the size of a large seal, with broad tail behind & two flippers of some kind in front. The head is doglike, with small eyes, the surface of the body seems like that of an elephant, but is slimy from being in the water. Movement very sluggish. The peculiar feature is the mouth, which is fringed with large hairs & acts with a kind of sucking movement to draw food in. The creature is very tame & lets itself be touched. It appears that this is the only vegetarian water-mammal. Could not be sure whether it inhabits fresh or salt water or both.
- George Orwell, diary entry, 21-5-39. May 25, 2009