spinner dolphin

noun

: a long-beaked dolphin (Stenella longirostris) that is typically dark gray above and white below and that is noted for its habit of spinning in the air when breaching

Examples of spinner dolphin in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The dwarf spinner dolphin, which had glowing teeth, was the only species that didn’t exhibit fluorescence on the outside of its body. Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Oct. 2023 Large pods of spinner dolphin pass the town regularly and, from a pathway along the shoreline, people can watch sea turtles ride currents among the mossy rocks just feet from the coast. Joshua Partlow, Washington Post, 19 Aug. 2023 Despite the federal protections, which prohibit swimmers or boats from approaching within 50 yards of a spinner dolphin in Hawaii, awareness about the harms of swimming near them still lags among the public, experts told The Post. Daniel Wu, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2023 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rule under the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits swimming with or getting within 50 yards of a spinner dolphin that is within 2 nautical miles of the shore of the main Hawaiian Islands. From Usa Today Network and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 30 Sep. 2021 Those leaping spinner dolphins in Hawaii look playful; the orcas in British Columbia not so much. Ginger Dingus, USA TODAY, 23 Jan. 2020 Maddalena Fumagalli, a cetacean biologist at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, investigates these issues in a study on spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) published today in Royal Society Open Science. Virginia Morell, Science | AAAS, 24 Apr. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1976, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of spinner dolphin was in 1976

Dictionary Entries Near spinner dolphin

Cite this Entry

“Spinner dolphin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spinner%20dolphin. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

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