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Orca are not whales. Technically, they are really big dolphins. They are in the delphinidae family (dolphins) which explains why they look/act/sound/move so differently than other "whales".

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale

See, specifically, the sub-heading on Odontocetes — literally, "toothed whale".

You appear to be operating with the category that "whale" is wholly and exhaustively synonymous with "baleen whale". You're wrong.

From the same wikipedia article...

"They [whales] are an informal grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins and porpoises. "

They're still order cetacea though, which is then split into baleen whales and toothed whales, which is where dolphins and orcas are found.

But not all cetaceans are whales. If orca are whales, then so too are the other dolphins. "Whale" is really a lay term covering the really big aquatic mammals. A whale shark certainly isn't a whale, but the term is still used there in the common name because of the association with size. Flipper wasn't a whale.

That makes sense, thinking of the whale sharks.

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