krill

UK/kɹɪl/US/kɹɪl/

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,282 of 15,258neutral

Krill are tiny shrimp-like creatures that whales eat by the tonne. A swarm of krill, feed on krill, krill oil.

Antarctic krill may be the most abundant animal species on earth by weight, and the whole Southern Ocean food web rests on them. A blue whale eats several tonnes a day. Fishing them for oil and feed is watched carefully for that reason.

Definitions of krill

1nounkrillTiny shrimp-like creatures that whales eat by the tonne.B2+
“Penguins and seals feed on the huge swarms of krill in the Southern Ocean.”

krill is a sea creature.

Where it comes from

Norwegian krill means the fry of fish, and whalers took the word for the swarms whales fed on.

Built from

krill · Norwegian Bokmål — fry of fish

From Norwegian - krill (“fry of fish”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Insects & Sea Life

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krill in the wild

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a species of krill found in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean.
Antarctic krill
The northern krill (Meganyctiphanes norvegica) is a species of krill that lives in the North Atlantic Ocean including the Norwegian Sea, North Sea, and parts of the Mediterranean.
Northern krill
In the Southern Ocean, Antarctic krill fills a similar role.
Northern krill
The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian word krill, meaning "small fry of fish", which is also often attributed to species of fish.
Krill
Most krill species display large daily vertical migrations, providing food for predators near the surface at night and in deeper waters during the day.
Krill

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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