tarn

noun

ˈtärn 

: a small steep-banked mountain lake or pool

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

One fuselage is deposited in an enormous hangar, used as a backlot on the slopes of the Sierra: the second one is nearly buried in artificial snow, and surrounded by olive trees; the third is found above the Sierra Nevada’s high mountain tarn La Laguna de las Yeguas, at around 10,000 feet. —Emilio Mayorga, Variety, 29 Apr. 2022

In the morning, kick off the day’s driving with a 30-minute excursion to visit the enormous sapphire tarn of Mono Lake, an alkaline expanse freckled with tufa spires, pinnacles formed by calcium carbonate interacting with freshwater springs in the lakebed. —Emily Pennington, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 Feb. 2022

Pass Grant Lake, a deep blue tarn nestled in the sagebrush. —Krista Simmons, Sunset Magazine, 22 Sep. 2022

The lake, a glacial tarn called Roopkund, was more than sixteen thousand feet above sea level, an arduous five-day trek from human habitation, in a mountain cirque surrounded by snowfields and battered by storms. —Douglas Preston, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2020

Follow the winding trail toward the base of O'Malley Peak to a striking, dark tarn called Deep Lake. —Tegan Hanlon, Anchorage Daily News, 15 June 2018

In 1951, some 885 square miles of Cumbrian hills and tarns (mountain pools) were designated as a national park, Britain’s largest and, with 18 million annual visitors, its most popular. —Kieran Dodds, Smithsonian, 20 Apr. 2018

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Word History

Etymology

Middle English terne, tarne, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse tjǫrn small lake

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Geographical Definition

Tarn

geographical name

ˈtärn 

river 233 miles (375 kilometers) long in southern France flowing west into the Garonne River