n.
Any of several large, cylindrical, herbivorous marine mammals of the order Sirenia, having a paddlelike tail and rounded front flippers, including the manatee, dugong, and the very large species Hydrodamalis stelleri of the northern Pacific that became extinct in the late 1700s. Also called sirenian.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
