Association of British Scrabble Players

Science & Tech > Mammals > Cetaceans


Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.


ambergris an ash-grey strongly-scented substance, originating in the intestines of the spermaceti whale and used in the manufacture of perfumes > AMBERGRISES.
baleen whalebone, horny plates growing from the palate of certain whales.
beluga the white whale; the sturgeon.
blackfish a name for the pilot whale (also for several kinds of fish).
blowhole the nostril of a whale.
bottlenose a kind of whale or dolphin.
bowhead the great Arctic or Greenland whale.
cachalot cacholot a sperm whale.
cetacean a type of aquatic mammal, including whales and dolphins.
cetaceous of or pertaining to the Cetacea.
cete a whale or sea-monster; also a badger's home.
cetology the study of whales.
cowfish any small cetacean; also a manatee.
delphin an archaic word for a dolphin.
delphinoid a member of the dolphin genus.
dolphin any of a group of small toothed whales belonging to the family Delphinidae.
dolphinet a female dolphin.
fenks the refuse of whale blubber, used as a manure, and in the manufacture of Prussian blue. N.B. no FENK*.
finback a type of whale characterized by a prominent fin on the back, aka RORQUAL.
finfish finner a finback whale.
gam a school of whales; to join up in a gam > GAMS, GAMMING, GAMMED.
grampus Risso's dolphin; also, a popular name for many whales, especially the killer > GRAMPUSES.
grayback greyback the California gray whale.
humpback a kind of whale.
krang kreng the carcass of a whale after the blubber has been removed.
lobtail of a whale, to slap its tail against the surface of the water > LOBTAILINGS.
minke a kind of whale. [From a Norwegian whaler Meincke, who harpooned one by accident].
muktuk whale skin used for food. [Inupiaq maktak.]
mysticete a species of whale.
narwal narwhal narwhale a kind of whale with a large projecting spiral tusk.
odontocete a subdivision of Cetacea, including the sperm whale, dolphins, etc.; the toothed whales.
orc orca the killer whale.
pellach pellack pellock a porpoise.
physeter a sperm whale. [Gr physeter, a blower, a whale, from physaein, to blow].
porcpisce (Spenser) a porpoise > PORCPISCES.
porpess porpesse a porpoise.
porpoise a short-snouted genus of the dolphin family; (verb) to move like a porpoise; spec. (of an aircraft, esp. a seaplane) to touch the water or ground and rise again > PORPOISES, PORPOISING, PORPOISED.
razorback the rorqual.
rorqual a large whale-bone whale; a finback > RORQUALS.
seahog the porpoise.
sei a whale, a kind of rorqual.
spermaceti a wax-like substance used in candles, ointments, etc., obtained from oil of sperm-whale, etc > SPERMACETIS.
spermous spermatic; of, derived from or relating to the sperm whale.
spouter a spouting whale; a whaling ship > SPOUTERS.
whale any of an order of cetaceous mammals; (verb) to beat > WHALES, WHALING, WHALED.
whalebone A light flexible substance consisting of the baleen plates of whales; an article made of this.
whalelike like a whale.
wholphin a hybrid of a whale and a dolphin.
zeuglodont any of a genus of fossil whales > ZEUGLODONTS.