A highly intelligent marine mammal with a smooth body, a beak-like snout, and a curved fin on its back. Dolphins live in groups and use clicks and whistles to communicate and find food.
From Old French 'daulphin' or 'dauphin', from Latin 'delphinus', from Greek 'delphís' meaning 'dolphin'. The Greek root may be related to 'delphys', meaning 'womb', perhaps from the animal’s rounded shape. The word has swum through several languages with little change in meaning.
Dolphins are mammals, not fish—they breathe air, nurse their young, and sleep with half their brain at a time so they don’t drown. The idea that they 'talk' with clicks and whistles is partly true: their sound system is so complex that we’re still trying to decode it. They blur the line between 'animal' and 'mind' in a way that fascinates scientists.
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