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# blowhole

«blowhole» in Mova's school dictionary: **the hole on the top of the head of a whale, dolphin or…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a blowhole, blowholes)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A blowhole is the hole on the top of the head of a whale, dolphin or porpoise, through which it breathes air. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#m1)

2) A blowhole is a hole in rocks on the coast where sea water is pushed up and sprays into the air when waves come in. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#m2)

3) A blowhole can also be a hole in ice where seals come up to breathe. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons, whales and dolphins are mammals, not fish, so they breathe air through their blowhole; the spray you see is warm breath, not a fountain of seawater. In geography, coastal blowholes form when waves erode caves in cliffs (famous ones in Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii). Phrases: «spray from the blowhole», «come up to breathe».

### examples

- The whale breathed out through its blowhole. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#x1)
- A dolphin has one blowhole on the top of its head. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#x2)
- Water sprayed high from the blowhole in the rocks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#x3)
- We visited the blowhole at Kiama in Australia. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#x4)
- The seal popped its head out of a blowhole in the ice. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#x5)
- Whales close their blowhole when they dive. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#x6)
- Stay behind the fence at the blowhole; waves can knock you over. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#x7)
- Some whales have two blowholes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/#x8)

### note

One word. Countable. Myth: whales do not shoot water out; the «spout» is mostly breath mixed with water drops. Baleen whales have two blowholes, toothed whales one. Safety: coastal blowholes and rock platforms are dangerous in big waves.

### In the corpora

- [Whales breathe through a blowhole on top of the head, and the spout is warm wet breath forming a cloud of mist.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/26-whales/7/)
- [They have one blowhole, and most find their food by sending out clicks and listening for the echoes.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/1/)
- [Two blowholes means a baleen whale, one means a toothed whale.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/400-the-big-biology-quiz-part-4-everything-from-lessons-301-to-399/4/)
- [Whales are mammals, not fish: they breathe air through a blowhole and feed their babies on milk.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/74-justso-whale-throat/22/)
- [A whale must come to the surface to breathe through its blowhole.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/29-classifying-unusual-animals/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «blowhole» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blowhole/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.