Gam
collective noun /ɡæm/ — A group of whales — rare word, rare sight.
Definition
The collective noun for a group of whales. The word is also used for the social visit between the crews of two whaling ships at sea.
Beyond the definition
Gam is a word that carries the age of the sea in it. Whaling ships that met in open ocean would stop and visit — a gam. Whales themselves gather in the same spirit: briefly, socially, then moving apart again into the vast blue.
Origin & history
From 18th-century whaling slang, possibly from Old Norse gamn — pleasure, amusement. Herman Melville used it in Moby-Dick: 'What is a Gam? A social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground.' The word migrated from the ships to their prey.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
A gam of humpbacks was spotted off the coast, their breath hanging like smoke.
Melville wrote of the gam as a rare fellowship — men who understood isolation greeting each other in it.
A gam is almost as rare to witness as the word itself is to hear.
How to use it
Follow this entry’s examples for grammatical form and sentence placement.
Choose “Gam” when the meaning fits your context: The collective noun for a group of whales. The word is also used for the social visit between the crews of two whaling ships at sea.
Synonyms
pod, school, group
Related words
Word in the Wild
See how this word appears in life, language and stories.
Illustrative sentences and imagined stories for learning — not verified sightings, interviews, or sourced quotations.
Word in focus
A gam of whales
Several whales surfacing together in the open sea.
Here, “gam” names the whole gathering. Notice the animals together rather than looking for one individual with that name. The photograph illustrates the group; it is not evidence that this particular scene inspired the expression.
Image credit: Ocean Observatories Initiative · Public domain (license)
Resized and converted to WebP; displayed with a fitted crop.
Questions about this word
What does "Gam" mean?
Gam is collective noun meaning: A group of whales — rare word, rare sight.. The collective noun for a group of whales. The word is also used for the social visit between the crews of two whaling ships at sea.
Where does the word "Gam" come from?
From 18th-century whaling slang, possibly from Old Norse gamn — pleasure, amusement. Herman Melville used it in Moby-Dick: 'What is a Gam? A social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground.' The word migrated from the ships to their prey.