The kanji and the word are exactly the same. That means they share meanings as well.

Since this word is made up of a single kanji, it probably uses the kun'yomi reading. You did not learn this reading, so here's a mnemonic to help you:

A whale is actually gojira's (godzilla) cool cousin kujira (くじら). Godzilla mutated from a whale, so they're still related. That's where he gets his name from!