North Atlantic right whale

noun

variants or less commonly northern Atlantic right whale

: a chiefly black right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) of temperate and subpolar waters of the Atlantic Ocean

The North Atlantic right whale is an endangered species, reduced by decades of hunting to just 350 worldwide.

—Michael Levenson, Boston Sunday Globe, 1 May 2005

Word History

First Known Use

1962, in the meaning defined above

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