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Pronunciation varies by accent · noun
The horny material from the fringed plates of the upper jaw of baleen whales that is used to filter plankton; once used as stays in corsets.
“You have probably never seen anything like this before, Mr. Toler. It is baleen, or if you prefer it, whalebone, taken from the mouth of the bowhead whale. It is used by the whale to filter its food.”
Use whalebone when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Whalebone means The horny material from the fringed plates of the upper jaw of baleen whales that is used to filter plankton; once used as stays in corsets.
Common synonyms include baleen.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
“You have probably never seen anything like this before, Mr. Toler. It is baleen, or if you prefer it, whalebone, taken from the mouth of the bowhead whale. It is used by the whale to filter its food.”
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