English Dictionary

DOLPHIN

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IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dolphin mean? 

DOLPHIN (noun)
  The noun DOLPHIN has 2 senses:

1. large slender food and game fish widely distributed in warm seas (especially around Hawaii)play

2. any of various small toothed whales with a beaklike snout; larger than porpoisesplay

  Familiarity information: DOLPHIN used as a noun is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


DOLPHIN (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Large slender food and game fish widely distributed in warm seas (especially around Hawaii)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

dolphin; dolphinfish; mahimahi

Hypernyms ("dolphin" is a kind of...):

percoid; percoid fish; percoidean (any of numerous spiny-finned fishes of the order Perciformes)

Meronyms (parts of "dolphin"):

dolphinfish; mahimahi (the lean flesh of a saltwater fish found in warm waters (especially in Hawaii))

Domain region:

Aloha State; Haw.; Hawai'i; Hawaii; HI (a state in the United States in the central Pacific on the Hawaiian Islands)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dolphin"):

Coryphaena hippurus (the more common dolphinfish valued as food; about six feet long)

Coryphaena equisetis (a kind of dolphinfish)

Holonyms ("dolphin" is a member of...):

Coryphaenidae; family Coryphaenidae (large active pelagic percoid fish)


Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of various small toothed whales with a beaklike snout; larger than porpoises

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("dolphin" is a kind of...):

toothed whale (any of several whales having simple conical teeth and feeding on fish etc.)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dolphin"):

common dolphin; Delphinus delphis (black-and-white dolphin that leaps high out of the water)

bottle-nosed dolphin; bottlenose; bottlenose dolphin (any of several dolphins with rounded forehead and well-developed beak; chiefly of northern Atlantic and Mediterranean)

porpoise (any of several small gregarious cetacean mammals having a blunt snout and many teeth)

grampus; Grampus griseus (slaty-grey blunt-nosed dolphin common in northern seas)

grampus; killer; killer whale; orca; Orcinus orca; sea wolf (predatory black-and-white toothed whale with large dorsal fin; common in cold seas)

black whale; blackfish; common blackfish; Globicephala melaena; pilot whale (small dark-colored whale of the Atlantic coast of the United States; the largest male acts as pilot or leader for the school)

river dolphin (any of several long-snouted usually freshwater dolphins of South America and southern Asia)

beluga; Delphinapterus leucas; white whale (small northern whale that is white when adult)

Holonyms ("dolphin" is a member of...):

Delphinidae; family Delphinidae (dolphins)


 Context examples 


Half of the dead dolphins examined had a thin adrenal gland cortex, indicative of adrenal insufficiency.

(Deepwater Horizon oil spill contributed to high number of Gulf dolphin deaths, NOAA)

Ten species have been selected for this task, including the jaguar, the howler monkey, and the pink river dolphin.

(Amazon jungle animals to be monitored by sensors, Agência Brasil)

It is from a class of ancient marine creatures called ichthyosaurs, which resembled dolphins.

(Sea Monster Swam Oceans 170 Million Years Ago, Voanews)

Most striking among the new species are the dolphin Inia araguaiaensis, found in the River Araguaia basin, and the new primate species, the fire-tailed titi-monkey Plecturocebus miltoni.

(Report unveils 381 new plant and animal species in Amazon, Agência Brasil)

P. damselae is an opportunistic pathogen that has been isolated from infectious sites in damselfishes, sharks, dolphins, and humans.

(Photobacterium damselae, NCI Thesaurus)

There’s the Treasury on the left, and the Horse Guards, and the Admiralty, where the stone dolphins are carved above the gate.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Porpoises and dolphins, I believe, will be frequently observed athwart our Bows; and, either on the starboard or the larboard quarter, objects of interest will be continually descried.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Human-created noise has increased steadily in recent decades and getting these first recordings allows scientists in the future to determine if the noise levels are growing and how this might affect marine animals that use sound to communicate, navigate and feed, such as whales, dolphins and fish.

(Seven miles deep, the ocean is still a noisy place, NOAA)

Mutualisms are crucial everywhere in nature, but to our knowledge, the only comparable foraging partnership between wild animals and our own species involves free-living dolphins who chase schools of mullet into fishermen’s nets and in so doing manage to catch more for themselves.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

In the morning, Thomas Mugridge being duly bribed, the galley is pleasantly areek with the odour of their frying; while dolphin meat is served fore and aft on such occasions as Johnson catches the blazing beauties from the bowsprit end.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Common sense ain't common." (English proverb)

"He who digs someone else's grave shall fall in it himself." (Bulgarian proverb)

"Every sun has to set." (Arabic proverb)

"A fine rain still soaks you to the bone, but no one takes it seriously." (Corsican proverb)



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