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 →

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 →

3) A blowhole can also be a hole in ice where seals come up to breathe. tree →

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 →
• A dolphin has one blowhole on the top of its head. tree →
• Water sprayed high from the blowhole in the rocks. tree →
• We visited the blowhole at Kiama in Australia. tree →
• The seal popped its head out of a blowhole in the ice. tree →
• Whales close their blowhole when they dive. tree →
• Stay behind the fence at the blowhole; waves can knock you over. tree →
• Some whales have two blowholes. tree →

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.
• They have one blowhole, and most find their food by sending out clicks and listening for the echoes.
• Two blowholes means a baleen whale, one means a toothed whale.
• Whales are mammals, not fish: they breathe air through a blowhole and feed their babies on milk.
• A whale must come to the surface to breathe through its blowhole.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «blowhole» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.