Odontocetes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A classification of marine mammals featuring teeth instead of baleen, represented by species such as dolphins and various whales
2. A subgroup within cetaceans known for their dental structure, which consists of toothed whales like dolphins and sperm whales
3. Marine mammals characterized by possessing teeth rather than baleen, including dolphins and sperm whales

Etymology: "Odontocetes" is the plural of "odontocete," and it is a scientific coinage built entirely from ancient Greek. The first half, "odontos," meant "tooth" (genitive "odontos," from "odous"), and the second half, "kētos," meant a large sea creature, typically a whale or sea monster. Put together, the name points to toothed whales, a category set apart from the baleen whales, which filter food through plates of keratin instead. The Greeks had no such word for the grouping, of course. The term was created by naturalists working in the modern era, who borrowed the Greek parts and assembled them into a taxonomic label, which is why it sounds classical while being a learned invention. The Latinized form "Odontoceti" serves as the formal name of the suborder, and English speakers adopted "odontocete" from that scientific Latin, then formed the plural "odontocetes" in the usual English way.