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# porpoise

«porpoise» in Mova's school dictionary: **a sea mammal like a small dolphin, with a short, round…** — 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 porpoise, porpoises)

### meaning for a pupil

A porpoise is a sea mammal like a small dolphin, with a short, round snout, a rounded head, a small triangular back fin and flat, spade-shaped teeth. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/porpoise/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons, porpoises are cetaceans, like whales and dolphins: they breathe air through a blowhole, are warm-blooded and feed their babies milk. The harbour porpoise lives around the coasts of Britain, Ireland and North America and is shy. The vaquita, a tiny porpoise in Mexico, is the most endangered sea mammal in the world, often caught in fishing nets. Phrases: «harbour porpoise», «a pod of porpoises».

### examples

- We saw a porpoise from the ferry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/porpoise/#x1)
- Porpoises are smaller than most dolphins. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/porpoise/#x2)
- A porpoise breathes through a blowhole on top of its head. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/porpoise/#x3)
- Harbour porpoises live in the cold seas around Britain. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/porpoise/#x4)
- The vaquita is a porpoise that is nearly extinct. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/porpoise/#x5)
- Porpoises hunt fish using echoes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/porpoise/#x6)
- One would have thought that Pinocchio had turned into a porpoise playing in the sun. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/porpoise/#x7)

### note

Plural «porpoises». Spelling: por-poise; say POR-pus. Trap: «purpose» (a reason or aim) sounds similar but is a different word. Porpoise vs dolphin: porpoises have rounded snouts and spade-shaped teeth; most dolphins have a beak-like snout and cone-shaped teeth.

### In the corpora

- [Porpoises are smaller cousins of dolphins with rounded heads, no long beak and spade-shaped teeth.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/27-dolphins-porpoises-and-seals/11/)
- [The vaquita, a porpoise in Mexico, is the rarest sea mammal; around ten were reported in recent surveys.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/27-dolphins-porpoises-and-seals/12/)
- [A grey porpoise with a smiling face and no back fin still lives there.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/379-china-s-great-rivers-the-finless-porpoise-the-lost-baiji-chinese-alligators-and-sturgeon/2/)
- [A 2022 survey counted about 1,250 finless porpoises, slightly more than five years before.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/379-china-s-great-rivers-the-finless-porpoise-the-lost-baiji-chinese-alligators-and-sturgeon/10/)
- [The Mock Turtle says no wise fish would go anywhere without a «porpoise», which sounds like «purpose».](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/41-alice-s-word-games-puns-parodies-and-nonsense/9/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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