Meanings
- pluralplural onlyWhale-like mammals.
PORPOISES AT MORETON BAY. Among the marine animals of Moreton Bay are two cetacea of great interest.
1852, John MacGillivray, Narrative Of The Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By The Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During The Years 1846-1850. Including Discoveries And Surveys In New Guinea, The Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. To Which Is Added The Account Of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition For The Exploration Of The Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist To The Expedition. In Two Volumes. Volume 1.3 more examples
Of cetacea, or whale-like mammals, sixty-five; ruminantia, or cud-chewers, one hundred and seventy-seven; pachydermata, or thick-skinned mammals, such as the horse, hog, and elephant, forty-one; edentata, like the sloth and ant-eater, thirty-five; rodentia, or gnawers, such as the rat, squirrel, and beaver, six hundred and seventeen; carnivora, or flesh-eaters, four hundred and forty-six; cheiroptera, or bats, three hundred and twenty-eight; quadrumana, or monkeys, two hundred and twenty-one; and marsupialia, or pouched mammals, like the opossum and kangaroo, one hundred and thirty-seven.
1882, William Denton, The Deluge in the Light of Modern ScienceBut here we give no such extracts, but content ourselves with four short skits, having the cetacea for their subject.
1870, Various, Heads and Tales--Acalephae[1] are plentiful, so much so, indeed, that they occasionally tempt the larger cetacea into the Gulf of Manaar.
1861, J. Emerson Tennent, Sketches of Natural History of Ceylon
Cite this entry
cetacea. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cetacea
“cetacea.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cetacea. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cetacea,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cetacea.
Source: cetacea on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.