How to Use sperm whale in a Sentence

sperm whale

noun
Definition of sperm whalenext
  • The 46-foot skeleton of a sperm whale is quite a sight.
    — Alex Erdekian, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 Mar. 2021
  • And the sperm whale clans may be thousands of years old.
    — Tom Metcalfe, NBC News, 19 Sep. 2022
  • The smallest could fit on the head of a pin; the largest, found in the gut of a sperm whale, grows up to 30 feet long.
    — Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post, 2 Jan. 2018
  • Daniel Kraus has a long tattoo of a sperm whale on his left arm.
    — Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 16 Aug. 2023
  • But that doesn’t mean sperm whales want to restrict themselves to the open ocean.
    — Emma Marris, The Atlantic, 22 Feb. 2023
  • This is still a rich area, but there are no more big squid, so no more sperm whales.
    — Smithsonian, 22 Aug. 2019
  • The shrill sounds of the sperm whale are downright dangerous.
    — Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 17 Oct. 2023
  • The world’s largest predators, sperm whales spend most of their lives hunting.
    — Carolyn Wells, Longreads, 8 Sep. 2023
  • For example, the streamlined teardrop hulls of post-World War II subs are based on the shape of the sperm whale.
    — Michael Peck, Forbes, 20 Oct. 2021
  • Since the late 1980s, trips to watch humpback, sperm whales and orca have sprung up all around Japan.
    — Simon Denyer, Washington Post, 20 Dec. 2019
  • Then the pilot whales made another run at the sperm whales.
    — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2023
  • On the West Coast:A 40-foot endangered sperm whale washed up dead on the Oregon coast.
    — Amanda Oglesby, USA TODAY, 1 Feb. 2023
  • Still, in proportion to our body size, the human brain is bigger than that of the sperm whale.
    — Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 19 Nov. 2022
  • Ship strikes are responsible for more than half of all sperm whale deaths in the area.
    — Claudia Geib, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Aug. 2022
  • That's how many pounds of plastic and waste were found inside the stomach of a sperm whale that washed up on a beach in Spain.
    — Doug Criss, CNN, 12 Apr. 2018
  • These oscillations might have slashed the numbers of squid that the sperm whales eat.
    — National Geographic, 18 Oct. 2016
  • On December 13, a 32-foot sperm whale swam to Rockaway Beach to die.
    — Laura Thompson, Curbed, 15 Feb. 2023
  • The snapping shrimp, aka the pistol shrimp, is one of the loudest creatures in the ocean, along with the sperm whale and beluga whale.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 12 July 2022
  • The epic battles between the colossal squid and the sperm whale show that when the sperm whale is ready for a meal, the squid isn’t always ready for the taking.
    — Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 3 July 2023
  • The 48-foot long male sperm whale ended up washing up on a beach near Berners Bay in mid-March.
    — Alex McCarthy, The Seattle Times, 13 Apr. 2019
  • Connecticut Connecticut's state mammal is the sperm whale, the largest of the Earth's toothed whales.
    — Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY, 8 Apr. 2023
  • With only a couple of these calls, a sperm whale can scope out schools of squid from almost 800 feet away.
    — Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 17 Oct. 2023
  • But it’s thought that colossal squid makes up at least 77 percent of a sperm whale’s diet.
    — Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 3 July 2023
  • The silence of the sperm whales went unchallenged until 1957.
    — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2023
  • The dwarf sperm whale can reach just under nine feet long at its maximum size.
    — Evan Hecht, USA TODAY, 21 Oct. 2022
  • The study also included the biggest whale with teeth, the sperm whale, which can stretch about 60 feet (18 meters) long, the group says.
    — Washington Post, 14 Dec. 2019
  • In addition, the carcasses of a pygmy sperm whale and a fin whale also have been found ashore.
    — Winston Gieseke, USA TODAY, 25 May 2021
  • The group also was instrumental in the naming of the sperm whale as the state animal in 1975.
    — Kenneth R. Gosselin, Hartford Courant, 11 July 2022
  • The remaining days include more secluded islands and plenty of wildlife viewing — depending on the season, guests can see gray, fin, blue, orca, and sperm whales, along with hundreds of dolphins and many species of birds.
    — Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 10 July 2024
  • The 60-foot, 20-ton replica of a sperm whale once delighted generations of children, who climbed around its hollow inside before the whale was removed last year when the museum relocated to make way for apartments on the site.
    — Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 21 May 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sperm whale.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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