How to Use pectoral fin in a Sentence

pectoral fin

noun
  • Asian swamp eels have no pectoral fins.
    — Sarah Perkel, USA Today, 15 Apr. 2026
  • The pectoral fins work in the same way to steer the fish left and right.
    — Matt Simon, WIRED, 19 June 2019
  • Its top portion was a marine blue, and the pectoral fins were wide and long.
    — William McKeever, BostonGlobe.com, 3 July 2019
  • They are so named for the black color on the tips of their dorsal and pectoral fins.
    — David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 3 Sep. 2025
  • One youngster’s pectoral fin got stuck between a float and the steel rope at the top of the net.
    — Lina Zeldovich, Smithsonian, 24 Mar. 2017
  • Grip them around the back of the head placing your thumb and forefinger on the back side of each pectoral fin.
    — Joe Cermele, Field & Stream, 24 May 2023
  • Some brood their eggs in a pouch, some in their mouths, some tuck them behind their pectoral fins—that’s called armpit brooding.
    — Jennifer Hayes, National Geographic, 23 May 2019
  • One example is the tiny deep sea pocket shark, which has a strange pouch behind its pectoral fins.
    — Gavin Naylor, The Conversation, 25 July 2019
  • Black bullheads are identified by the pectoral fins.
    — Ken Perrotte, Outdoor Life, 4 June 2026
  • Our hands came from the forelimbs of land vertebrates, which derived from the pectoral fins of fish.
    — Frans De Waal, Discover Magazine, 31 May 2019
  • Next, as if aware of an audience, the humpback rolled on its side and flapped a pectoral fin to splash the water.
    — Walter Nicklin, Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2022
  • Kosma was able to see exactly how two adult male humpbacks were using their pectoral fins.
    — Virginia Morell, Science | AAAS, 15 Oct. 2019
  • Make your first cut behind the pectoral fin or gill cover, angling the tip of the knife slightly toward the head.
    — Michael Stillwell, Popular Mechanics, 27 Mar. 2023
  • The misshapen right pectoral fin and scars on the mottled many-shades-of-gray skin of one narwhal looked familiar.
    — Marguerite Holloway, The New Yorker, 31 Aug. 2021
  • The sighting involved tail slapping and the whales slapping their pectoral fin against the ocean’s surface, boaters said.
    — Paloma Chavez august 22, Sacbee.com, 22 Aug. 2025
  • 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
  • Brown and yellow bullheads have the rear edge of their pectoral fin spine serrated with sharp tooth-like projections.
    — Ken Perrotte, Outdoor Life, 4 June 2026
  • These relationships are so tight, in fact, that the males spend a lot of time caressing each other with their pectoral fins.
    — Jason Bittel, National Geographic, 7 June 2018
  • In one video, Gauna captured a shark with a pectoral fin bent at a right angle from an injury, like a broken wing.
    — Joe Mozingo, oregonlive, 16 May 2021
  • The healthier whale then held the other whale in place with its pectoral fins and began to penetrate the other whale.
    — Matt Lavietes, NBC News, 29 Feb. 2024
  • By midmorning, rescuers began moving a fire hose under the whale’s belly and around his pectoral fins.
    — Jessica Camille Aguirre, New Yorker, 2 May 2026
  • But not just any fish—a lionfish, which has elaborate dorsal and pectoral fins and can perform displays using them.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 19 June 2019
  • Instead, parts of the fish’s pectoral fins have separated through evolution.
    — Jason Bittel, National Geographic, 2 June 2017
  • Meanwhile, grey whales rolled in the presence of dolphins 56 times, and southern right whales slapped their pectoral fins on five occasions.
    — Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 13 Aug. 2025
  • Over and over again, the dolphin pushed a newborn calf, almost certainly her own, away from the observers' boat and against the current with her snout and pectoral fins.
    — Barbara J. King, Scientific American, 23 May 2017
  • The study found evidence supporting the idea that pectoral fin shape is an adaptive trait shaped by ecological demands.
    — Melissa Cristina Marquez, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024
  • The collar refers to the section that begins directly behind the head and ends just behind the pectoral fin (right before the start of the fillet).
    — Cosmo Genova, Field & Stream, 23 Apr. 2020
  • The other study examines the genetics that allowed the fish to repurpose pectoral fins into legs.
    — Gary Stix, Scientific American, 26 Sep. 2024
  • Ghost sharks use their forehead teeth to grip a female mate's pectoral fins while reproducing, according to video records examined in the study.
    — Staff Author, PEOPLE, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The most prized are the first dorsal fin — the largest one, located on the back of the animal — the pectoral fins on the sides of the trunk, and the one at the lower end of the tail.
    — Angela Posada-Swafford, Discover Magazine, 28 June 2024

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