as in stronghold
a structure or place from which one can resist attack
the boys built a snow fortress and then challenged the neighborhood kids to an in-your-face snowball fight
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of fortress
Over the past decade, the continent has built a big, largely invisible fortress—one that carries enormous economic and moral risks.
—
Jonathan Portes, Time, 29 Oct. 2025
The fortress was found at the Tell El-Kharouba archaeological site in Sheikh Zuweid, a Bedouin town in North Sinai.
—Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 27 Oct. 2025
Directed by Oscar winner Bille August, The Count of Monte Cristo stars Claflin as Edmond Dantès, a young sailor who was falsely accused of treason and is imprisoned without trial in the Château d’If, a grim island fortress off Marseille, France.
—Lynette Rice, Deadline, 22 Oct. 2025
However, once a paranoid hermit nation of Europe, after 1992 Albania began to emerge from its fortress mindset.
—Literary Hub, 22 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fortress
Jonathan Portes, Time, 29 Oct. 2025
The fortress was found at the Tell El-Kharouba archaeological site in Sheikh Zuweid, a Bedouin town in North Sinai.
—Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 27 Oct. 2025
Directed by Oscar winner Bille August, The Count of Monte Cristo stars Claflin as Edmond Dantès, a young sailor who was falsely accused of treason and is imprisoned without trial in the Château d’If, a grim island fortress off Marseille, France.
—Lynette Rice, Deadline, 22 Oct. 2025
However, once a paranoid hermit nation of Europe, after 1992 Albania began to emerge from its fortress mindset.
—Literary Hub, 22 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fortress
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fortress
Noun
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McDonald said DeSantis also could be trying to shore up Republican strongholds to mitigate the losses generally experienced by the party in power during midterm elections.—
Mike Schneider,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Jan. 2026
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Campbell’s main support always came from the union stronghold of Pueblo, in southern Colorado.—
Dave Marston,
Denver Post,
6 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The area was once a citadel complex in the time of King Herod, who ruled from 37 to 5 B.C. after he was appointed king of Judea by the Romans.—
Andrea Margolis,
FOXNews.com,
11 Dec. 2025
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The sprawling citadel — complete with towers, walls and barracks — was discovered at the Tel el-Kharouba archaeological site in the Sinai Peninsula, according to an Oct. 11 news release from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.—
Brendan Rascius,
Miami Herald,
17 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In September 2023, in the middle of the Northumberland night, a mechanic named Adam Carruthers cut down a sycamore tree more than a century old that stood in a gap along an especially picturesque section of Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman fortification that runs across the narrowest part of England.—
Rosa Lyster,
Harpers Magazine,
30 Dec. 2025
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Passmore’s magisterial, revisionist account of the Maginot Line—the network of French fortifications built in the 1920s and 1930s to stop a German invasion—challenges the conventional understanding of its role in World War II.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
16 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Hurricane Andrew visited in 1992 but couldn’t damage his coral castle.—
Howard Cohen,
Miami Herald,
7 Nov. 2025
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After a precruise stay at the Ritz-Carlton Osaka, the itinerary includes private performances by Kodo taiko drummers and geishas, strolls among cherry blossoms and bonsai trees, and visits to castles and temples, such as the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto.—
Fran Golden,
AFAR Media,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
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The new district is a throwback of sorts to Orange County’s mid- to late-20th-century role as a bastion of conservative Republicanism.—
David Mark,
The Washington Examiner,
7 Nov. 2025
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His critics on the left say these ideas are unrealistic — even in a liberal bastion like New York City.—
Elena Moore,
NPR,
2 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Our chairs are for sitting on, not for constructing elaborate forts.—
Eddie Small,
New Yorker,
6 Jan. 2026
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The steady flow of packages into our New York and London beauty closets alone could create a cardboard box fort or two.—
Conçetta Ciarlo,
Vogue,
29 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Fortress.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fortress. Accessed 10 Jan. 2026.
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