whalebone
noun
whalebone is spelled W-H-A-L-E-B-O-N-E: 9 letters. It appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 102,771st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, 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” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of whalebone is whalebones.
How many letters and syllables are in whalebone?
| Letters | 9: W-H-A-L-E-B-O-N-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 12 million words; the 102,771st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is whalebone?
Whalebone appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 102,771st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce whalebone?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-whalebone.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of whalebone
- whalebones plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does whalebone mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Whalebone in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense horny material from fringed plates of upper jaw of baleen whale:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does whalebone come from?
From whale + bone.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).