Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

sperm whale

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.60 in modern English

Syllables
sper-m whale
IPA
20
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A whale, Physeter macrocephalus, the largest of the toothed whales.

noun

Any whale in the superfamily Physeteroidea, which also includes the small whales of genus Kogia.

Etymology

A clipping of spermaceti whale.

Inflected Forms

sperm whales (plural)

Phrases

dwarf sperm whale pygmy sperm whale sperm whale oil sperm-whale porpoise sperm oil

Frequently Paired Words

spermaceti sperm oil

Synonyms

cachalot common cachalot spermaceti whale black whale physeter catodon

Questions

What does sperm whale mean?
A whale, Physeter macrocephalus, the largest of the toothed whales.
Where does sperm whale come from?
A clipping of spermaceti whale.

How to pronounce sperm whale

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “sperm whale”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “sperm whale”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “sperm whale” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.