MEANING
Flexible, bristled plates of keratin hanging from some whales’ upper jaws and used to strain food from water.
Use it for
explaining how certain whales filter food; describing fringed plates inside a whale’s mouth; distinguishing baleen whales from toothed whalesNames the filtering material in certain whales without mistaking it for teeth or ordinary bone. Writing functions: Whale filter-feeding structure.
Words that belong together
- baleen plates
- the baleen fringe
- filter water through baleen
On the page
Water streamed through the whale’s baleen while prey remained inside.
The museum displayed a strip of baleen beside a model jaw.
Word forms
- Base
- baleen
Usage notes
Mass noun: baleen. Count the individual structures as baleen plates. Register: technical. Commonness: moderately common in nature writing (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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