great whale

English

Noun

great whale (plural great whales)

1. Any of the largest thirteen species of whale currently extant (a polyphyletic grouping, all of which are baleen whales except the sperm whale).
   • 1971 Dec, National Geographic, page 725:

     Other early hunters of whales included [...] the Basques, who developed the first organized whale fishery [...] in the Bay of Biscay, and who managed through overfishing virtually to eliminate an entire stock of great whales - those known as the Biscayan right whales.