MEANING
Small shrimp-like marine crustaceans that often gather in large groups and feed many fish, seabirds, and whales.
Use it for
describing food for baleen whales; naming swarms of tiny shrimp-like sea animals; explaining links in a marine food webNames the small shrimp-like crustaceans central to many ocean food webs rather than all plankton. Writing functions: Marine food-web animals.
Words that belong together
- krill swarms
- Antarctic krill
- feed on krill
On the page
The whale turned beneath a dense swarm of krill.
The sample jar glimmered with pale, moving krill.
Word forms
- Base
- krill
Usage notes
Collective noun; unchanged plural krill. A krill can denote an individual in specialist usage, but mass use is usual. Register: neutral. 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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