Definitions

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

  • noun A small toothed whale (Delphinapterus leucas) chiefly of the Arctic Ocean, having a bulbous forehead and a white body when full-grown.
  • noun A large white anadromous sturgeon (Huso huso) of the Black and Caspian Seas, valued for its roe.
  • noun Caviar made from the roe of this fish, having large grayish grains.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The large white sturgeon, Acipenser huso, from the roe of which, sometimes weighing 800 pounds, caviar or botargo is prepared.
  • noun [capitalized] [NL.] A generic name of the white whales: a synonym of Delphinapterus.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A cetacean allied to the dolphins.
  • noun the sturgeon (Huso huso) native to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea; -- also called hausen. It is valued for its roe, sold as caviar, and is also used for production of isinglass. See also sturgeon.
  • noun the caviar obtained from the beluga{2}; -- also called beluga caviar. The caviar of the beluga is considered the finest sort, larger and of a taste superior to that obtained from other sturgeon. See also sturgeon and caviar.

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

  • noun A cetacean, Delphinapterus leucas, found in the Arctic Ocean.
  • noun A fish, Huso huso, found in the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, that is a source of caviar

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun valuable source of caviar and isinglass; found in Black and Caspian seas
  • noun small northern whale that is white when adult

Etymologies

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

[Russian belukha, white whale, and beluga, sturgeon : belyĭ, white; see bhel- in Indo-European roots + -uga, -ukha, augmentative suff.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Russian word белуга (belúga) (in turn белый (bélyj, "white")). In modern standard Russian белуга (belúga) means the fish only (the "European sturgeon") and белуха (belúxa) a "white whale".

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