whalefall

W4H4A1L1E1F4A1L1L1

noun

A whale carcass that has fallen to the ocean floor.

Scrabble 18
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounwhalefall (plural whalefalls)

plural whalefalls

  1. A whale carcass that has fallen to the ocean floor.

    But the ocean floor is not exactly wall-to-wall whalefalls.

    2007 December 18, Henry Fountain, “Whales Are Tasty, but Bone-Eating Worms Might Not Discriminate”, in New York Times

Origin

From whale + fall, possibly modelled after snowfall. Compare also marine snow.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

whalefall. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whalefall

MLA

“whalefall.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whalefall. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “whalefall,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whalefall.

Source: whalefall on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.