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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

whale.

Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈweɪl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛj(ə)l/British, Southern, Standard/ˈwæɪl/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈweːl/Wales
  1. Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.

  2. Any species of Cetacea, including dolphins and porpoises.

    broadly
  3. Something, or someone, that is very large.

    figuratively
  4. Something, or someone, that is excellent.

    figuratively
  5. A gambler who routinely wagers large amounts of money.

    figuratively
  6. An investor who deals with very large amounts of money.

    figuratively · informal
  7. A person who spends large amounts of money on things that are marketed to them.

    figuratively
  8. An overweight person (usually a woman)

    colloquial · derogatory · figuratively
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos Proto-Germanic *hwalaz Proto-West Germanic *hwal Old English hwæl Middle English whal English whale From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara, “kind of fish”)).

verb/ˈweɪl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛj(ə)l/British, Southern, Standard/ˈwæɪl/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈweːl/Wales
  1. To hunt for whales.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos Proto-Germanic *hwalaz Proto-West Germanic *hwal Old English hwæl Middle English whal English whale From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara, “kind of fish”)).

verb/ˈweɪl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛj(ə)l/British, Southern, Standard/ˈwæɪl/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈweːl/Wales
  1. To thrash, to flog, to beat vigorously or soundly.

    slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

Uncertain. Perhaps a variant of wale influenced by whack, whap, etc.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.