SEA COW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sea cow mean? 

• SEA COW (noun)
  The noun SEA COW has 1 sense:

1. any of two families of large herbivorous aquatic mammals with paddle-shaped tails and flipper-like forelimbs and no hind limbs

  Familiarity information: SEA COW used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SEA COW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of two families of large herbivorous aquatic mammals with paddle-shaped tails and flipper-like forelimbs and no hind limbs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

sea cow; sirenian; sirenian mammal

Hypernyms ("sea cow" is a kind of...):

aquatic mammal (whales and dolphins; manatees and dugongs; walruses; seals)

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

manatee; Trichechus manatus (sirenian mammal of tropical coastal waters of America; the flat tail is rounded)

dugong; Dugong dugon (sirenian tusked mammal found from eastern Africa to Australia; the flat tail is bilobate)

Hydrodamalis gigas; Steller's sea cow (extinct large sirenian mammal formerly found near the Asiatic coast of the Bering Sea)

Holonyms ("sea cow" is a member of...):

order Sirenia; Sirenia (an animal order including: manatees; dugongs; Steller's sea cow)

 Context examples 

Warm ocean waters caused the widespread loss of seagrasses, a main food source for dugongs (sea cows) and other species that are the sharks' prey.

(Sharks, the seagrass protectors, National Science Foundation)