porpoise
A small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to dolphins and whalesA small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to dolphins and whales.
» Whales, dolphins and porpoises are divided into two groups: toothed and baleen.
Hybrid · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 sensesA small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to dolphins and whales.
Near-synonyms: sea hog, sea pig, seaswine, mereswine
Tümmler, Schweinswal
морска́я свинья́morskája svinʹjá
морська́ свиня́morsʹká svynjá
(Canada, US, broadly)Any small dolphin.
- any of several small gregarious cetacean mammals having a blunt snout and many teeth
Examples
3 sentencesWhales, dolphins and porpoises are divided into two groups: toothed and baleen.
Toothed whales, including dolphins, porpoises, sperm whales and orcas, use sharp, pointed teeth to catch fish and other large prey.
Human and elephant, mouse and porpoise, all have three small bones in their middle ear — the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup.
Translations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English porpeys, purpeys, borrowed from Anglo-Norman porpeis, purpeis, Old FreFrom Middle English porpeys, purpeys, borrowed from Anglo-Norman porpeis, purpeis, Old French pourpois, porpois, pourpais, porpeis (“porpoise”), from Vulgar Latin *porcopiscis (“porpoise”, literally “hog-fish”), taken from Latin porcus (“hog, pig”) + piscis (“fish”). Compare (in transposed order) obsolete Italian pesce porco and Portuguese peixe porco; also Latin porcus marīnus (“sea hog”); akin in formation to Frankish *mariswīn (“porpoise, dolphin”) (whence German Meerschwein, English mereswine). Displaced native Middle English brunswyn. More at mereswine.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: porpoisesSynonyms
5 synonymsWord family
6 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.