Definition of glacier
: a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface
Updated on: 17 Jun 2018
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Recent Examples of glacier from the Web
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An additional increase in ice losses came from the smaller glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula, which are also melting rapidly but contain less sea level rise potential.
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It is covered by ice sheets that get channeled into the oceans through a network of ice streams and glaciers.
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Since trekking on a glacier can be treacherous, our guide constantly used her ax to clear the way for us.
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Normally, the reservation gets its water from winter snowpack and the melting of a nearby glacier.
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But where's the love for Giraffatitan, the giraffe-like African sauropod, or Glacialisaurus, the beefy beast whose bones were discovered in an Antarctic glacier?
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His book also chronicled his perilous adventures including whitewater rafting on the Colorado and Zambezi Rivers, canoeing the waters off Panama and hiking glaciers in Antarctica.
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The once-sublime Mer de Glace glacier, where Frankenstein encounters his escaped monster midway through the book, has shrunk by more than a mile since Shelley wrote the scene.
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For the Rhodens and their neighbors, Appalachia is more than simple geography defined by receding glaciers millions of years ago.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'glacier.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of glacier
French, from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal), from glace ice, from Latin glacies; akin to Latin gelu frost — more at cold
Other Geology Terms
anthracite, boulder, cwm, erratic, igneous, intrusive, mesa, sedimentary, silt, swale
GLACIER Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of glacier for English Language Learners
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: a very large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope or valley or over a wide area of land
GLACIER Defined for Kids
Definition of glacier for Students
: a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or over a wide area of land
Learn More about glacier
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See words that rhyme with glacier Spanish Central: Translation of glacier Nglish: Translation of glacier for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of glacier for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about glacier
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