killer whale
"killer-whale" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“killer whale” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sea mammal related to dolphins and porpoises (Orcinus orca).
Corpus desk
Index EN-killer-whale · killer whale · English
killer whale · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "K" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | killer whale |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “killer whale” in English
Rare enough to double-check
killer whale is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A sea mammal related to dolphins and porpoises (Orcinus orca).".
Zero misspellings are on record for killer whale in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Calque or mistranslation of Spanish asesina-ballenas (“whale killer”), referring to their tendency to hunt whales. The correct English form is killer whale, spelled K-I-L-L-E-R- -W-H-A-L-E.
Definition
- 1A sea mammal related to dolphins and porpoises (Orcinus orca).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how killer whale appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Of this whale, little is known to the Nantucketer, and nothing at all to the professed naturalist. From what I have seen of him at a distance, I should say that he was about the bigness of a grampus. He is very savage - a sort of Feegee fish. He sometimes takes the great Folio whales by the lip and hangs there like a leech until the mighty brute is worrie…
Once or twice, too, I saw the killer-whale (Orca gladiator), the little species so readily known by its prominent back-fin.
Etymology
Calque or mistranslation of Spanish asesina-ballenas (“whale killer”), referring to their tendency to hunt whales.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.