right whale

1. 1.

   large Arctic whalebone whale; allegedly the `right' whale to hunt because of its valuable whalebone and oil

   Broaderbaleen whale

   Part ofBalaenidae

Questions about right whale

What does right whale mean?

right whale means "large Arctic whalebone whale; allegedly the `right' whale to hunt because of its valuable whalebone and oil".

Is right whale a common word?

right whale is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.