blue whale

English

Illustration of an adult blue whale alongside a human for size reference.

Noun

blue whale (plural blue whales)

1. A whale (Balaenoptera musculus), blue in color and the largest known living animal.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, page 131:

     But there are a rabble of uncertain, fugitive half-fabulous whales, which as an American whaleman, I know by reputation, but not personally....the Iceberg whale; the Quog Whale; the Blue Whale. But I omit them as altogether obsolete and can hardly help suspecting them for mere sounds full of leviathanism, but signifying nothing.

Synonyms

• sulfur-bottom whale
• sulphur bottom whale

Derived terms

• pygmy blue whale

 

Translations

a whale, Balaenoptera musculus

• Afrikaans: blouwalvis
• Arabic:

  Cypriot Arabic: latn

• Assamese: নীলা তিমি (nila timi)
• Azerbaijani: göy balina
• Belarusian: блакітны кіт m (blakitny kit)
• Catalan: rorqual blau (ca) m, balena blava (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᎠᏌᎪᏂᎨ ᏓᏆ (asagonige daqua)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 藍鯨 / 蓝鲸 (zh) (lánjīng)

• Czech: plejtvák obrovský (cs) m
• Danish: blåhval (da) c
• Dutch: blauwe vinvis (nl)
• Esperanto: blua baleno
• Estonian: sinivaal
• Faroese: royður f
• Finnish: sinivalas (fi)
• French: baleine bleue (fr) f, rorqual bleu (fr), rorqual de Sibbald
• German: Blauwal (de) m
• Greenlandic: tunnulik
• Hungarian: kék bálna (hu), óriás bálna (hu)
• Icelandic: steypireyður (is) f
• Italian: balenottera azzurra f
• Japanese: 白長須鯨 (ja) (しろながすくじら, shironagasu kujira)
• Korean: 대왕고래 (daewanggorae)
• Kyrgyz: көк кит (ky) (kök kit)
• Malay: paus biru
• Malayalam: നീലത്തിമിംഗിലം (nīlattimiṅgilaṁ)
• Maltese: balena kaħla, balena bluna
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хөх судалт халим (xöx sudalt xalim), цэнхэр халим (cenxer xalim)

  Mongolian: ᠬᠥᠬᠡ
  ᠰᠤᠳᠠᠯᠲᠤ
  ᠬᠠᠯᠢᠮᠤ (köke sudaltu qalimu), ᠴᠡᠩᠬᠡᠷ
  ᠬᠠᠯᠢᠮᠤ (čengker qalimu)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: blåhval m, blåkval m

  Nynorsk: blåkval m

• Polish: płetwal błękitny (pl) m
• Portuguese: baleia-azul (pt) f
• Romanian: balenă albastră f, balenă uriașă f
• Russian: блюва́л (ru) m (bljuvál), си́ний кит (ru) m (sínij kit)
• Slovak: vráskavec obrovský m
• Slovene: sinji kit (sl) m
• Spanish: rorcual azul m, ballena azul f
• Swahili: nyangumi buluu
• Swedish: blåval (sv) c
• Telugu: నీలి తిమింగలం (nīli timiṅgalaṁ)
• Thai: วาฬสีน้ำเงิน (waan-sǐi-nám-ngən)
• Turkish: gök balina
• Ukrainian: синій кит m (synij kyt)
• Vietnamese: cá voi xanh