Steller sea lion
- noun
- /ˈstɛlər siː laɪən/
- Specialized
:
león marino de Steller
- The Steller sea lion is a fascinating marine mammal.
Examples
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The Steller sea lion is listed as near threatened due to declines in its population.
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A mature male Steller sea lion can weigh over 1,000 kilograms.
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Researchers studied a colony of Steller sea lions off the Alaskan coast.
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Did you see the Steller sea lions at the aquarium?
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During his trip to Alaska, he was thrilled to see a Steller sea lion basking on the rocks.
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The wildlife tour included a sighting of a massive Steller sea lion swimming gracefully through the cold ocean water.
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In the northern Pacific, the Steller sea lion is known for its impressive size compared to other sea lions.
Synonyms
1
6.2
A very large sea lion that lives in the northern Pacific Ocean
A large sea lion that lives in the northern Pacific, also called the Steller sea lion
Surface Forms
Morphology
Steller + sea + lion
The phrase is compositionally built from 'sea' + 'lion', so a learner who knows those words will understand it denotes a type/kind of sea lion; 'Steller' here functions as a proper-name modifier identifying a particular species rather than changing the basic meaning. Proper-name + noun naming patterns are common cross-linguistically, so the referential meaning (a specific sea-lion species) is transparent even if precise biological details require extra knowledge.
Etymology
Steller sea lion is named after the German explorer Steller, who first saw and described this big sea animal long ago. The words sea lion give a simple picture — a large, noisy sea mammal that looks a little like a lion on land, so the name means 'a large sea lion' and helps you remember both its size and who it was named after.