Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various marine mammals of the order Cetacea, including the whales, dolphins, and porpoises, having the general shape of a fish with forelimbs modified to form flippers, a tail with horizontal flukes, and one or two blowholes for breathing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to the whale, or to the Cetacea.
  • noun An animal of the order Cete; a whale, or one of the whale kind.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the Cetacea.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to the zoologic order Cetacea, or associated with species falling under that taxonomic hierarchy.
  • adjective More generally, relating to large aquatic mammals, either directly or by analogy.
  • noun An animal belonging to the order Cetacea, including dolphins, porpoises, and whales.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to whales and dolphins etc
  • noun large aquatic carnivorous mammal with fin-like forelimbs no hind limbs, including: whales; dolphins; porpoises; narwhals

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin Cētācea, order name, from Latin cētus, whale; see Cetus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

New Latin cetacea, from Latin cetus ("whale").

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Examples

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    November 10, 2007

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    November 10, 2007