How to Use dugong in a Sentence

dugong

noun
  • Two large dugongs swim quite close to the boat while a third baby dugong stays further back.
    — Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Last year a record number of dead dugongs were found in Thai waters.
    — USA TODAY, 23 Apr. 2020
  • Soon enough, the boaters saw a group of dugongs, also known as sea cows, swimming toward them.
    — Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Lucky travelers might even catch a glimpse of the resident dugongs or sea turtles.
    — Eric Rosen, National Geographic, 21 May 2019
  • Keep an eye out for dugong, a docile—but easily started—sea cow that delirious sailors of yore took for mermaids.
    — WSJ, 20 Oct. 2017
  • The beachside loungers offer front-row seats to fauna like dolphins, sea turtles, sand gazelles, and dugongs.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 Jan. 2026
  • An orchid, a baobab tree, a dugong, an orangutan, even at some future point the trace lines of a mycelial network––all of these should hold money.
    — J.m. Ledgard, Wired, 12 May 2021
  • The dugong, dubbed Yamil, died Thursday during surgery to have the seagrass removed.
    — Washington Post, 24 Aug. 2019
  • Take a ride on a dhow, a traditional African fishing boat, or ask your lodge to take you dugong (a rare sea cow) spotting.
    — Elise Taylor, Vogue, 21 Dec. 2022
  • The dugong is a strictly herbivorous marine mammal – the only of its kind.
    — Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 26 Aug. 2022
  • In a separate find, a different tiger shark that the team had previously tagged, threw up what appeared to be half a dugong.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 6 June 2024
  • Some believe the dugong is the inspiration for ancient seafaring tales of mermaids and sirens.
    — Reuters, NBC News, 24 Aug. 2022
  • The last remaining dugong live in the very bay where the United States is developing its new base.
    — Daniel Wolfe, Quartz, 27 Dec. 2019
  • Meanwhile, indiscriminate fishing tools such as gill nets ensnare and drown dugongs.
    — Danna Staaf, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Sharks, whales, rays, turtles, dolphins, and even the rare dugong swim these stunning seas alongside 2,000 fish species.
    — Melanie Van Zyl, Travel + Leisure, 16 May 2021
  • Most dugongs die because of humans, especially from their fishing equipment.
    — Washington Post, 24 Aug. 2019
  • Last week, she was found bruised after being chased and supposedly attacked by a male dugong during the mating season.
    — Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2019
  • Though China has made seagrass restoration a top priority, those efforts couldn’t save the dugong.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Aug. 2022
  • Some believe that aquatic mammals such as manatees and dugongs inspired mermaid legends.
    — Monica Cull, Discover Magazine, 24 July 2023
  • The four-month-old Marium shot to fame in April, when adorable photos of the dugong hugging her vets went viral online.
    — Eric Todisco, PEOPLE.com, 19 Aug. 2019
  • The three dugongs interact and almost seem to play together before disappearing from view, the footage shows.
    — Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Snorkel in the hopes of seeing a rare dugong, India’s version of a manatee, but stay content with the rays and turtles that are more likely.
    — Ella Riley-Adams, Vogue, 4 Jan. 2019
  • Sharks, whales, rays, turtles, dolphins, and even the rare dugong (a manatee-like creature) swim these stunning seas alongside hundreds of species of fish.
    — Melanie Van Zyl, Travel + Leisure, 6 Mar. 2026
  • Despite experts’ best efforts, the young dugong died early Saturday morning.
    — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Though the dugongs are currently buffered from the conflict in the strait, Bartholomew noted that a spill reaching their coastal waters would pose a serious threat.
    — Asuka Koda, CNN Money, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Despite his eternal smile suggesting otherwise, this male dugong seemed visibly annoyed by the dozen remoras hitching a free ride on him.
    — Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes, 24 Jan. 2025
  • Eventually, word of Marium, the dugong, got out, and photos of her went viral in Thailand.
    — Aj Willingham, CNN, 10 Aug. 2019
  • All of this has created a region where wildlife thrives, including sharks and rays, crocodiles, dugongs, and in-shore dolphin populations.
    — Anne Casselman, National Geographic, 18 Apr. 2019
  • Nantarika said dugongs typically stop feeding on milk at around 18 months and usually spend around eight years under their mothers' care.
    — Fox News, 15 June 2019
  • Australia is home to the world’s largest dugong population, and they are legally protected by all states and the nation’s federal government.
    — Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Sep. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dugong.' 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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