How to Use cetacean in a Sentence

cetacean

noun
  • Not just an ordinary cetacean but a blue whale, the biggest of the species.
    — Tom Titus, latimes.com, 24 May 2018
  • The very thought of an adult standing inside of a cetacean’s organ gives the girl an idea.
    — Megan Gambino, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Dec. 2024
  • So bats, the cetaceans — basically those are whales and dolphins, all right?
    — Janna Levin, Quanta Magazine, 21 Nov. 2024
  • In some places, official guardians watch over a resident cetacean.
    — Cathleen O'Grady, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 July 2020
  • Many small baleen whales disappeared, and other cetaceans moved elsewhere.
    — Melissa Cristina Márquez, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
  • That’s because these blue whale bones are still leaking oil, despite the cetacean being dead for over two decades.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 16 Oct. 2024
  • Among marine mammals, pinnipeds, such as seals, do—but cetaceans, such as whales and dolphins, do not.
    — Anna Diamond, Smithsonian, 28 June 2018
  • The smallest cetaceans in the world had wide, black rings around their eyes and mouths, as if heavily drawn with lipstick.
    — Erik Vance, Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2017
  • Humpback whales are large cetaceans that feed primarily on krill, fish and plankton.
    — Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 14 Feb. 2025
  • Whales are known for their noises, from humpback whale songs to the clicks and whistles of orcas and other toothed cetaceans.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 18 Sep. 2024
  • Modern baleen whales include many of the world’s largest cetaceans, such as blue, fin, humpback, right, bowhead, and minke whales.
    — National Geographic, 19 Apr. 2018
  • Researchers have long guessed at why baleen whales—a group of cetaceans that includes humpback, minke, right whales and others—grew so big.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 24 May 2017
  • Researchers have long guessed at why baleen whales—a group of cetaceans that includes humpback, minke, right whales and others—grew so big.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 25 May 2017
  • Wake and these five other cetaceans were the last orcas to be captured in US waters.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 20 Mar. 2025
  • The study showed cetaceans with the largest brain size relative to their body living in more complex groups or pods were more likely to show grief.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 20 June 2018
  • While most cetaceans' pectoral fins are only one-seventh of their body length, a humpback's flippers can reach up to one-third of its body length.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 17 Oct. 2019
  • Other species living in the open sea are more specialized and attach to cetaceans, swordfish, or marlins.
    — Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 9 Aug. 2025
  • On the show The Boys, a speedboat smashes into a cetacean and the humans emerge unscathed.
    — Rhett Allain, Wired, 14 Sep. 2020
  • Hundreds, possibly thousands, of otherwise healthy cetaceans have died as a result of the war.
    — David Axe, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
  • These recent, extreme adaptations raise a question of how cetaceans may continue to change.
    — Brian Switek, Smithsonian, 27 June 2018
  • The ancient Greeks recognized that cetaceans breathe air, give birth to live young, produce milk, and have hair—all features of mammals.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Apr. 2026
  • After the earthquake, the team used directional hydrophones to tune into the cetaceans' sounds, and then traveled to the source in their boat.
    — National Geographic, 31 Jan. 2020
  • The Australian bottlenose dolphin, a cetacean, will wear a sea sponge on its rostrum for protection when rooting around the ocean floor.
    — National Geographic, 12 Jan. 2023
  • Like all other toothed whales, these little Arctic-dwelling cetaceans have an organ on their foreheads that’s referred to as the melon.
    — Tom Hawking, Popular Science, 2 May 2024
  • The center identified 61 dead cetaceans, the group of aquatic mammals that includes whales and dolphins, since the oil spill.
    — Kevin Lynn, Newsweek, 6 Jan. 2025
  • This cetacean is an anatomical bridge between more archaic forms like Basilosaurus and the profusion of baleen whales that followed.
    — Brian Switek, Scientific American Blog Network, 14 June 2017
  • As for the whale itself, experts are still unable to determine why the cetacean and its travel companions swam upriver in the first place.
    — Gabrielle Chung, PEOPLE.com, 14 Sep. 2020
  • The all white belugas are a cold-water species native to the arctic and sub-arctic north whose closest relative among cetaceans is the narwhal.
    — Steve Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 4 July 2019
  • The plan is to survey sites where offshore wind farms might be built, to assess the risk of any development there interfering with local cetaceans.
    — The Economist, 10 May 2018
  • That could be because commercial whaling bans have boosted the number of cetaceans in the sea, allowing whales to find mates without having to shout.
    — Emily Anthes, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cetacean.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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