Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See killer whale.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In mammalogy, a genus of marine delphinoid odontocete cetaceans, containing the numerous species known as killers, sword-fish, or grampuses. They are remarkable for their strength, ferocity, and predatory habits, and are the only cetaceans which habitually prey upon warm-blooded animals, such as those of their own order. The teeth are about 48 in number, implanted all along the jaws; the vertebræ are 50–52, of which the cervicals are mostly free; the flippers are very large, and oval; the dorsal fin is high, erect, pointed, and situated about the middle of the body; and the head is obtusely rounded.
- n. In ornithology, that part of the tracheal tympanum of a bird which is formed by the more or less coössified rings of the bronchi. See tympanum.
Wiktionary
- n. A sea mammal (scientific name: Orcinus orca) related to dolphins and porpoises, commonly called the killer whale.
WordNet 3.0
- n. predatory black-and-white toothed whale with large dorsal fin; common in cold seas
Etymologies
- Latin ōrca, whale, probably alteration (probably influenced by ōrca, vessel) of Greek orux, orug-, pickax, a kind of large fish or whale, perhaps from orussein, to dig.
Examples
“And that means loss of campaign donations, duh! oh wait, never mind, the orca is the essence of seattle. actually, chijully is the essence of seattle put him on the orca, standing at a microphone to give public input, because that's the essence of seattle. everything should express the essence of seattle and our values. coming next: rebranding city light as city light as city orcachihulysalmonmetronaturalsaywa -- that's our essence!”
“But animals do what animals do, and this orca is a wild animal.”
“Transient must everything be called orca? if you were a tourist or infrequent user and saw an orca card it wouldn't say "transit" to you. if you see a sign that says get your orca card here, it wouldn't mean transit to you. the little graphic of the orca is nice, it doesn't have jack all to do with transit.”
“The killer whale, Orcinus orca, is the only species formally accepted at this time.”
“Negative connotations arose from the fact the orca is a tremendously vicious animal.”
“The ruling dashes the hopes of conservationists who wanted to reintroduce the animal - also known as an orca - into the wild in its native waters off the coast of Norway.”
“A former contractor with SeaWorld told the Sentinel that the 30-year-old, 12,300-pound male orca, which is also called Tillikum, is typically kept isolated from other orcas and that trainers were not allowed to get in the water with him because of his violent history.”
“Åka is not so easy for non-scandinavians its pronounced almost like "orca".”
“That’s good news for the little orca, which is being called J42 according to birth order.”
“He said gashes caused by predators such as orca or sharks were usually jagged, but this one was straight, which made him suspect it was caused by the propeller of a large ship.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘orca’.
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Echolocation
"Echolocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several animals such as shrews, most bats, and most cetaceans. The term was coined by Donald Griffin, whose work with Robert Gal...
echolocation, biosonar, sonar, shrew, bat, microbat, megabat, dolphin, porpoise, orca, sperm whale, river dolphin and 10 more...
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