Meanings
plural rorquals
- Any whale of family Balaenopteridae, with longitudinal skin folds running from below the mouth to the navel, allowing the capacity of the mouth to expand greatly when feeding.
Now then, the biggest whales, those rorqual whales that frequent the waterways of the Aleutian Islands, have never exceeded a length of 56 meters--if they reach even that.
2001 [1873], Frederick Paul Walter, transl., 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, Wikisource / Project Gutenberg, translation of Vingt mille lieues sous les mers by Jules VerneSynonyms: balaenopterid
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAny whale of family Balaenopteridae, with longitudinal skin folds running from below the mouth to the navel, allowing the capacity of the mouth to expand greatly when feeding.
More synonyms by meaning
nounany of several baleen whales of the family Balaenopteridae having longitudinal grooves on the throat and a small pointed dorsal fin
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Norsereyðarhvalr“fin whale”
- Norwegian Nynorskrøyrkval
- Englishrorqual
From Norwegian Nynorsk røyrkval, from Old Norse reyðarhvalr (“fin whale”).
More words from Norwegian Nynorsk, Old Norse
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan rorqual
- rorqualwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Danish finhval
- finhvalwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Dutch vinvis
- vinviswhale with long skin folds below mouth
Finnish uurteisvalas
- uurteisvalaswhale with long skin folds below mouth
French rorqual
- rorqualwhale with long skin folds below mouth
German Furchenwal
- Furchenwalwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Hungarian barázdásbálna
- barázdásbálnawhale with long skin folds below mouth
Italian balenottera
- balenotterawhale with long skin folds below mouth
Norwegian finnhval
- finnhvalwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Polish fałdowiec
- fałdowiecwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Portuguese rorqual
- rorqualwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Russian полоса́тик
- полоса́тик (polosátik)whale with long skin folds below mouth
Spanish rorcual
- rorcualwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Swahili nyangumi mwenye mifuo ya kooni
- nyangumi mwenye mifuo ya kooniwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Swedish fenval
- fenvalwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Welsh rorcwal, morfil walbon
- rorcwalwhale with long skin folds below mouth
- morfil walbonwhale with long skin folds below mouth
- morfil asgellogwhale with long skin folds below mouth
Cite this entry
rorqual. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rorqual
“rorqual.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rorqual. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rorqual,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rorqual.
Source: rorqual on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.