Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A group of badgers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A whale.
  • noun A company; a number together: said of badgers. Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 80.
  • An order of monodelphian Mammalia, superorder Educabilia, containing the true cetaceans, as whales, dolphins, etc.
  • In some systems of zoölogical classification, a suborder of Cetomorpha. Also Ceta.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the Cetacea, or collectively, the Cetacea.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun rare A cetacean
  • noun obsolete A company of badgers

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, possibly from Medieval Latin cetus, assembly, from Latin coetus, a coming together, variant of coitus; see coitus.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cete.

Examples

  • Creavitque Deus cete grandia, et omnem animam viventem atque motabilem, quam produxerant aquæ in species suas, et omne volatile secundum genus suum.

    Archive 2008-07-01 Prof. de Breeze 2008

  • Creavitque Deus cete grandia, et omnem animam viventem atque motabilem, quam produxerant aquæ in species suas, et omne volatile secundum genus suum.

    Snakes in the water and other discoveries Prof. de Breeze 2008

  • Chose que je deteste d'ailleurs mais sans savoir pourquoi cete fois je me suis posté devant mon ordi et j'ai repondu le plus serieusement du monde aux questions qui defilaient ...

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2008

  • (And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature which hath a living soul.) “Creavit Deus cete grandia, et omnem animam viventem, atque motabilem quam produxerant aquæ.”

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • There are some lovely examples of peculiar collective nouns in the English language, like an exultation of larks, a pride of lions, a cete of badgers and a convocation of eagles.

    A Cacophony of Candidates In Town Tomorrow Ron Buckmire 2007

  • There are some lovely examples of peculiar collective nouns in the English language, like an exultation of larks, a pride of lions, a cete of badgers and a convocation of eagles.

    Archive 2007-08-01 Ron Buckmire 2007

  • Some examples: A shrewdness of apes, cete of badgers, army of caterpillars, knot of toads, unkindness of ravens, or a clowder of cats. link

    Boing Boing: March 28, 2004 - April 3, 2004 Archives 2004

  • The word commonly rendered whales (cetos vel cete) might in my judgment be not improperly translated thynnus or tunny fish, as corresponding with the Hebrew word thaninim.

    Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1 1509-1564 1996

  • _ Show him into the Parlour -- _Senior tome vind sueipora; cete

    The Busie Body Susanna Centlivre

  • Marcell.v. Cetarii -- "cete in mari majora sunt piscium genera."

    The Iliad of Homer (1873) 750? BC-650? BC Homer 1840

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A group of badgers

    November 16, 2007

  • Related to set in some way? Or if not, to what? Whales?

    November 16, 2007

  • I hate getting badgered, a group of them would be even worse.

    September 6, 2008