Meanings
plural mako sharks
- Either of two powerful mackerel sharks of the genus Isurus, having a large heavy body, a sharp nose and a nearly symmetrical tail, found in southern oceans.
He was a very big Mako shark built to swim as fast as the fastest fish in the sea and everything about him was beautiful except his jaws.
1952 September 1, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 1001 more example
‘Aguedo fell through the floor into what we call the shark pool. We call it that because it is a pool filled with sharks. Mako sharks, to be precise.’
2022, Percival Everett, Dr. No, Influx Press (2023), page 101
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Māorimakō“shark”
- Englishmako shark
Borrowed from Māori makō (“shark”), a Southern Māori dialect form of the more standard mangō (“shark”).
More words from Māori
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Czech mako
- makoshark species
Korean 청상아리
- 청상아리 (cheongsang'ari)shark species
Māori mako, ngutukao
- makoshark species
- ngutukaoshark species
Polish ostronos
- ostronosshark species
Portuguese anequim, tubarão-anequim
- anequimshark species
- tubarão-anequimshark species
Russian аку́ла-ма́ко, ма́ко
- аку́ла-ма́ко (akúla-máko)shark species
- ма́ко (máko)shark species
Cite this entry
mako shark. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mako%20shark
“mako shark.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mako%20shark. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mako shark,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mako%20shark.
Source: mako shark on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.