Which name do you call the world’s biggest species of dolphin, Orcus Orcaby?
Orca
or
Killer Whale.
C. Both 
Ditto
Your poll presumes the answer to be Orca by using “an”…
Orca. It’s not a whale at all, for one thing.
Killer whale. Orca is the name of the killer whale that kicked all that ass in the movie “Orca”.
I almost always say killer whale, even though I know it’s technically wrong (right? They’re not really whales, closer to dolphins/porpoises?)
Either/or. (ca)
Funny story…
I was spending an afternoon on a beach in July. I was sitting near a family – a mature woman, her two daughters, and two grandkids. The mature (physically, not emotionally or mentally) woman was sort of a Cliff Clavin. The kids were talking about how they wanted to swim with a whale shark. Grandma Cliffy kept correcting them, saying that it wasn’t called a whale shark, it was called an Orca, like in that movie with that guy from Kung Fu.
The lady could run her mouth. In my mind I kept saying “shut the fuck up, you ingnant bitch!” But my telepathic powers must be a little rusty because she kept talking non-stop.
Killer Whale sounds cooler. Also, my recollection is that the term Orca wasn’t used much until the movie with Bo Derek.
Dolphins are whales. Specifically, they’re a type of toothed whale like sperm whales or pilot whales or beluga whales. So there’s nothing wrong taxinomically with the name “Killer Whale” except that they aren’t as especially vicious as the name implies (unless you are a seal I suppose).
Many years ago I worked at a public aquarium that contained whales (belgas and Pacific white-sided dolphins) with a Pacific Northwest theme, and it seems to me that orca orca was usually referred to as “killer whale.”
Mostly killer whale, I guess, but sometimes orca. Frankly, the term rarely comes up in conversation.
Some people gotta lot of nerve.
It’s an orca. But I say Killer whale. “Orca” makes you sound like a scientist which, if you’re not one, is pretentious.
Of course, when I see a pod of them I mutter, “Orcses, thousands of orcses and pits, pits, pits… BAHHHH!” I do this to amuse myself. And it works.
Killer whale. But I prefer “grampus” to both. It’s a much better word, with only the slight downside that nobody has a clue what you’re talking about.
Also the name of a very pleasant pub.
I prefer Orca since I learned it from the movie. Makes me feel smart.
Either one interchangeably.
It’s a goblin. Or, if really big, a hobgoblin.
Yrch, for the purists.
nitpick: Orcinus orca, Not Orcus.
Are orcs just a larger variety of goblin, or are they something completely different? Wretched descendants of elves, yeah, but do the goblins fall into that category?
Orca, killer whale implies some bloodthirsty edge to them (though they are the Wolves of the Sea) and… Yeah.