Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Walrus |
WalrusNoun1. Either of two large northern marine mammals having ivory tusks and tough hide over thick blubber. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "walrus" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1813. (references) |
Etymology: Walrus \Wal"rus\, noun. [from Dutch expression walrus; of Scand. origin; compare to Dan valros, Swedish vallross, Norw. hvalros; literally, whale horse; akin to Icelandic hrosshvalr, Anglo-Saxon horshw[ae]l. See Whale, and Horse.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Industry | A genuine walrus hide, vegetable tanned without splitting, generally used for buffing wheels. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Walrus Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Odobenidae Genus: Odobenus Species: rosmarus Binomial name Odobenus rosmarus Walruses are large semi-aquatic mammals that live in the cold Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The two subspecies are the Atlantic, Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus, and the Pacific, Odobenus rosmarus divergens. The Pacific Walrus is slightly larger, the male weighing up to 4000 pounds.
Odobenus is compounded from "odous" Greek for tooth and "baino" Greek for walk, based on observations of walruses using their tusks to drag themselves along. Rosmarus is based on the Swedish word for walrus. Divergens is based on Latin for turning apart, referring to the tusks.
Walruses mate in the water and give birth on land or ice floes. They feed in the water, diving to depths of 300 feet, sometimes staying under for as long as a half hour. Male Walruses compete for territory, often fighting each other; the winners in these fights breeds with large numbers of females.
Pacific Walruses spend the summer north of the Bering Strait in the Chulchi Sea along the north shore of eastern Siberia, around Wrangel Island, in the Beaufort Sea along the north shore of Alaska, and in the waters between those locations.
Smaller numbers of males summer in the Gulf of Anadyr on the south shore of the Chulchi Peninsula of Siberia and in Bristol Bay off the south shore of southern Alaska west of the Kenai Peninsula.
In the spring and fall they congregate in the Bering Strait, adjacent to the west shores of Alaska, and in the Gulf of Anadyr. They winter to the south in the Bering Sea along the eastern shore of Siberia south to the northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and along the southern shore of Alaska.
Pacific Walrus.
Larger version
Walruses spend about half their time in the water and half their time on beaches or ice floes where they gather in large herds. They may spend several days at a stretch either on land or in the sea. In the sea they sometimes catch fish but generally graze along the sea bottom for clams which they suck from their shells.
There are about 200,000 Pacific Walruses; about 3000 are harvested annually by Alaskan natives. They have long tusks, which are elongated canines used for fighting and display. Ivory from the tusks is used for carving. The only natural enemies of the walrus are man and the polar bear. Polar bears hunt walruses by rushing at them, trying to get the herd to flee, then picking off calves or other stragglers.
The breeding season for walruses is midwinter, a time spent in the southern Bering sea. The males show off in the water for the females who view them from pack ice. Males compete aggressively for this display space with each other. Mating is probably in the water. After fertilization the fertilized egg is dormant for several months, then a gestation period of 11 months follows. When a calf is born it is over 3 feet long and able to swim. Birth takes place on the pack ice; the calf nurses for about 2 years, spending 3 to 5 years with its mother. Females are mature at about 6 years, males at 9 or 10. A walrus lives about 40 years.
There are about 15,000 Atlantic Walruses which live in the Canadian Arctic, the waters of Greenland, and the waters of the western portion of the Russian Arctic. The Atlantic walrus once enjoyed a range that extended south to Cape Cod and were found in large numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The Walrus is a member of order Carnivora and is the only species in the family Odobenidae. The name "Odobenidae" comes from Greek, it means tooth-walker; Walruses sometimes use their tusks to aid them moving across ice.
External Links
- USGS - Pacific Walrus Research
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Walrus."
Synonyms: WalrusSynonyms: sea horse (n), seahorse (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Walrus |
| English words defined with "walrus": scrimshaw, Sea beast ♦ tusk ♦ Waltron. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "walrus": Whale. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I am the walrus. (The Big Lebowski; writing credit: Ethan Coen; Joel Coen) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Walrus and the Carpenter (1965) Walrus Hunters (1923) The Walrus Gang (1917) When Ambrose Dared Walrus (1915) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Akpatok Island lies in Ungava Bay in northern Quebec, Canada. Accessible only by air, Akpatok Island rises out of the water as sheer cliffs that soar 500 to 800 feet (150 to 243km) above the sea surface. The island is an important sanctuary for cliff-nesting seabirds. Numerous ice floes around the island attract walrus and whales, making Akpatok a traditional hunting ground for native Inuit people. Credit: NASA. |  | Walrus - Odobenus rosmarus divergens - hauled out on Bering Sea ice. Credit: NOAA's Ark (Animals). |
 | Large walrus on the ice - Odobenus rosmarus divergens - contemplating the photographer. Credit: NOAA's Ark (Animals). |  | Sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) the LESTER JONESat Walrus Island. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Walrus in water. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Walrus being brought aboard ship for study and dissection. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Hauling a dead walrus onto the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Ship BROWN BEAR. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | PC-8 hunts walrus in the Bering Sea. Credit: National Undersea Research Program (NURP). |
 | Walrus. Credit: Alaska Image Library. |  | Walrus in the water. Credit: Alaska Image Library. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Walrus" by Remco Oostlander Commentary: "Walrus." | "Walrus" by Igor Beres Commentary: "Walrus at aquarium." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | If you eat raw or undercooked meats, particularly pork, bear, wild feline (such as a cougar), fox, dog, wolf, horse, seal, or walrus, you are at risk for trichinosis. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Walrus" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.18% of the time. "Walrus" is used about 55 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.18% | 54 | 46,184 |
| Noun (plural) | 1.82% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 55 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "walrus": Atlantic walrus ♦ Pacific walrus ♦ walrus mostache ♦ walrus moustache ♦ walrus mustache. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "walrus": walrus-ivory. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "walrus"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | lopë deti (sea cow). (various references) | |
Arabic | حصان البحر. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | морж (sea cow, sea horse). (various references) | |
Chinese | 矮胖子. (various references) | |
Czech | mrož (sea cow). (various references) | |
Danish | hvalrosskind, hvalros. (various references) | |
Dutch | walrusleder, walrus. (various references) | |
Farsi | گرازماهی (Porpoise), شیرماهی . (various references) | |
Finnish | mursu. (various references) | |
French | morse. (various references) | |
German | Walross. (various references) | |
Greek | θαλάσσιοσ ίπποσ (sea cow, sea horse), δέρμα θαλασσίου ίππου. (various references) | |
Hebrew | סוס ים. (various references) | |
Hungarian | rozmár (Morse). (various references) | |
Inuktitut | aiviq. (various references) | |
Italian | tricheco (Morse, walruses). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 海象 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | せいうち. (various references) | |
Manx | coo ny marrey. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | alrusway.(various references) | |
Portuguese | morsa (sea-cow). (various references) | |
Romanian | morsã (sea horse, sea-ox). (various references) | |
Russian | морж моржовый, морж (sea horse). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | morž (morse). (various references) | |
Spanish | morsa (sea cow, sea horse). (various references) | |
Swedish | valross. (various references) | |
Turkish | mors (Morse, sea horse), denizayısı (manatee, sea cow). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | морж (sea horse). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Odobenus rosmarus, Odobenus rosmarus (Linnaeus,1758). (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "walrus": walruses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Walrus" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: wallrus, walruse, Walu. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "walrus" (pronounced wô"lrus) |
| 3 | -r u s | actress, ambassadress, ambidextrous, arris, Brontosaurus, buttress, chorus, Cirrus, citrus, congress, Cypress, Cyprus, cytomegalovirus, desirous, dextrous, disastrous, embarrass, estrous, estrus, ferrous, fibrous, fortress, hantavirus, headmistress, heiress, hubris, huntress, hydrous, idolatrous, Iris, ludicrous, lustrous, Madras, maquiladoras, mattress, mistress, monstrous, Morris, nitrous, nonferrous, ogress, polyandrous, porous, puris, retrovirus, seamstress, sorus, stegosaurus, temptress, terrace, thesaurus, Tyrannosaurus, virus, waitress, wondrous. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-l-r-s-u-w" | |
-1 letter: sural, wauls. | |
-2 letters: awls, lars, laws, raws, saul, slaw, slur, sura, ursa, wars, waul, waur. | |
-3 letters: als, ars, awl, lar, las, law, ras, raw, sal, sau, saw, war, was. | |
-4 letters: al, ar, as, aw, la, us. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-l-r-s-u-w" | |
+2 letters: bulwarks, walruses. | |
+3 letters: outbrawls, outcrawls, ultraslow. | |
+4 letters: caterwauls, drawerfuls, lusterware, outlawries, rauwolfias, wanderlust. | |
+5 letters: lawrenciums, leisurewear, lusterwares, superlawyer, unworkables, wanderlusts. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
