baleen whale

noun

: any of a suborder (Mysticeti) of usually large whales typically of colder waters that lack teeth but have baleen plates in the upper jaw which are used to filter chiefly small crustaceans (such as krill) out of large quantities of seawater see fin whale, gray whale, humpback whale, right whale, rorqual compare toothed whale

Examples of baleen whale in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Even baleen whales eat swarms of tiny animals known as krill. —Sara Kiley Watson, Popular Science, 18 Mar. 2026

Jude opted for the nonspeaking part, playing a baleen whale, minding his own business. —Yiyun Li, New Yorker, 1 Mar. 2026

Notably, a 2025 study published in Nature Communications observed that baleen whale migration (including gray whales) facilitates the transportation of essential nutrients — from their placenta, carcasses and even their urea — between polar feeding grounds and tropical breeding areas. —Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 26 Jan. 2026

Bryde’s whales are large baleen whales commonly found in warm, tropical and subtropical waters. —Kelly McGreal, FOXNews.com, 4 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1874, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for baleen whale

• abigail
• cottontail
• countervail
• fingernail
• martingale
• mesoscale
• microscale
• monorail
• nanoscale
• ponytail
• swallowtail
• wensleydale

Kids Definition

baleen whale

noun

: any of various usually large whales lacking teeth but having baleen for filtering small ocean animals (as krill) out of seawater compare toothed whale