minke whale

noun

min·​ke whale ˈmiŋ-kə- 

variants or less commonly minke

: a small gray to black baleen whale (genus Balaenoptera) with a whitish underside and a relatively narrow, pointed snout:

a

: one (B. acutorostrata) chiefly of the northern hemisphere

called also common minke whale, northern minke whale

b

: one (B. bonaerensis) of the southern hemisphere that was formerly classified in the same species as the northern form

called also Antarctic minke, southern minke whale

see rorqual

Illustration of minke whale

Examples of minke whale in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

A couple of minke whales had breached in front of us as our small group departed from Ungava Polar Eco Tours’s camp on a boat excursion, but now silence and stillness had fallen. —Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Oct. 2024

Go whale watching Set out in search of the orca, humpback and minke whales that swim through the Pacific off the Vancouver Island coast. —Carolyn Heller, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024

Pods of porpoises frolic, and a playful minke whale shimmers in the afternoon sun. —Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 Sep. 2024

Greg Rouse, a marine biologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography who helped with the surveys, says that the remains belong to gray, blue, humpback, fin, sperm and minke whales. —Douglas Main, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

partial translation of Norwegian minkehval, from minke- (perhaps from Meincke, a crewman of Svend Foyn †1894 Norwegian whaler) + hval whale

First Known Use

1939, in the meaning defined above