How to Use cetacean in a Sentence

cetacean

noun
Definition of cetaceannext
  • Not just an ordinary cetacean but a blue whale, the biggest of the species.
    — Tom Titus, latimes.com, 24 May 2018
  • On the show The Boys, a speedboat smashes into a cetacean and the humans emerge unscathed.
    — Rhett Allain, Wired, 14 Sep. 2020
  • Not since the Yangtze River dolphin went extinct in 2006 in China has a cetacean gone over the brink.
    — Rod Nordland, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2017
  • The smallest cetaceans in the world had wide, black rings around their eyes and mouths, as if heavily drawn with lipstick.
    — Erik Vance, Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2017
  • Modern baleen whales include many of the world’s largest cetaceans, such as blue, fin, humpback, right, bowhead, and minke whales.
    — National Geographic, 19 Apr. 2018
  • The study showed cetaceans with the largest brain size relative to their body living in more complex groups or pods were more likely to show grief.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 20 June 2018
  • Researchers have long guessed at why baleen whales—a group of cetaceans that includes humpback, minke, right whales and others—grew so big.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 24 May 2017
  • Researchers have long guessed at why baleen whales—a group of cetaceans that includes humpback, minke, right whales and others—grew so big.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 25 May 2017
  • After the earthquake, the team used directional hydrophones to tune into the cetaceans' sounds, and then traveled to the source in their boat.
    — National Geographic, 31 Jan. 2020
  • The North Atlantic right whale, for example, reaches over 50 feet in length and is one of the most endangered cetaceans on the planet.
    — Brian Switek, Smithsonian, 27 June 2018
  • Among marine mammals, pinnipeds, such as seals, do—but cetaceans, such as whales and dolphins, do not.
    — Anna Diamond, Smithsonian, 28 June 2018
  • While most cetaceans' pectoral fins are only one-seventh of their body length, a humpback's flippers can reach up to one-third of its body length.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 17 Oct. 2019
  • In some places, official guardians watch over a resident cetacean.
    — Cathleen O'Grady, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 July 2020
  • The Australian bottlenose dolphin, a cetacean, will wear a sea sponge on its rostrum for protection when rooting around the ocean floor.
    — National Geographic, 12 Jan. 2023
  • What sort of organism?: A cetacean related to today's baleen whales.
    — Brian Switek, Scientific American Blog Network, 10 July 2017
  • Many of the doomed cetaceans looked skinny or emaciated, while others looked torn up by orcas.
    — Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2024
  • Hundreds, possibly thousands, of otherwise healthy cetaceans have died as a result of the war.
    — David Axe, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
  • Like all other toothed whales, these little Arctic-dwelling cetaceans have an organ on their foreheads that’s referred to as the melon.
    — Tom Hawking, Popular Science, 2 May 2024
  • Experts believe the ailing cetacean came into the Bay in late May searching for food and respite from the harsher conditions of the Pacific Ocean.
    — Ashley McBride, SFChronicle.com, 17 June 2019
  • Only males sing them, especially in the breeding grounds, which suggests that music is the food of love for cetaceans, too—though the exact function of the songs is still obscure.
    — Alison Gopnik, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2017
  • Sperm whales are the only living cetacean that has a single blowhole asymmetrically situated on the left side of the crown of the head.
    — al, 23 Nov. 2020
  • The same whale-watching business spotted the cetaceans on three occasions: June 3, 4 and 9. Papaya has been spied off the Orange County coast before.
    — Saumya Gupta, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2023
  • As for the whale itself, experts are still unable to determine why the cetacean and its travel companions swam upriver in the first place.
    — Gabrielle Chung, PEOPLE.com, 14 Sep. 2020
  • Creatures of many species from wolf to cetacean grieve the loss of relatives or close companions, as Barbara J. King discusses.
    — Andrea Gawrylewski, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2018
  • The vaquita, also known as the California harbor porpoise, is the smallest cetacean and makes its home in the northern part of the Gulf of California.
    — Doug Johnson, Ars Technica, 6 May 2022
  • This cetacean is an anatomical bridge between more archaic forms like Basilosaurus and the profusion of baleen whales that followed.
    — Brian Switek, Scientific American Blog Network, 14 June 2017
  • The all white belugas are a cold-water species native to the arctic and sub-arctic north whose closest relative among cetaceans is the narwhal.
    — Steve Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 4 July 2019
  • The world’s smallest member of the cetacean grouping, which includes whales and dolphins, the vaquita was the most recent cetacean to be recognized by modern science.
    — Rod Nordland, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2017
  • That meant less competition for landing sites and a staggering number of whale sightings as the cetaceans were at their most curious ahead of their migrations north.
    — Sebastian Modak, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 June 2023
  • What originally appeared to be attacks, now seem more likely to be a bunch of bored teenage orcas looking for something to do, said cetacean expert Alexandre Zerbini.
    — Ramon Padilla, USA TODAY, 9 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cetacean.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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