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Porpoise vs Portoise - What's the difference?

porpoise | portoise |

As nouns the difference between porpoise and portoise

is that porpoise is a small cetacean of the family phocoenidae, related to whales and dolphins while portoise is (nautical) the gunwale of a ship.

As a verb porpoise

is said of an aircraft: to make a series of plunges when taking off or landing.

porpoise

English

Noun

(wikipedia porpoise) (en noun)
  • A small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to whales and dolphins.
  • (North America, imprecisely) Any small dolphin.

    • Synonyms

    * , (l), (l), (l), (l)

    Verb

    (porpois)
  • Said of an aircraft: to make a series of plunges when taking off or landing.

    • See also

    * dolphin * killer whale * pod * sea lion * seal * whale *

    portoise

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (nautical) The gunwale of a ship.

    • Derived terms

    * a-portoise (Webster 1913)