white whale

W w

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- [hwahyt, wahyt hweyl, weyl]
- /ʰwaɪt, waɪt ʰweɪl, weɪl/
- /waɪt weɪl/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [hwahyt, wahyt hweyl, weyl]
- /ʰwaɪt, waɪt ʰweɪl, weɪl/

Definitions of white whale words

noun white whale beluga (def 2). 1
noun white whale beluga: sea mammal 1
noun white whale a small white toothed whale, Delphinapterus leucas, of northern waters: family Monodontidae 0
noun white whale beluga (sense 2) 0
noun white whale A cetacean, Delphinapterus leucas, found in the Arctic Ocean. 0
noun white whale (figuratively) An obsession; monomania. 0

See all 7 definitions of white whale

Information block about the term

Origin of white whale

First appearance:

before 1680

One of the 48% oldest English words

First recorded in 1680-90

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for White whale

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of White whale

white whale popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 31% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 67% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

white whale usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer