as in pile
a small quantity of stones heaped together that usually marks a place
A cairn of loose stones marked the site.
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Recent Examples of cairn
Inside every cairn, the team unearthed countless human and animal bones, often fragmented.
—
Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 28 Mar. 2025
The bones excavated at the site were returned to King William Island in 1994 and interred in a memorial cairn.
—Katie Hunt, CNN, 11 Oct. 2024
Ranger died in 1940 and was buried at the summit of Mount Hood, which is marked by a stone cairn and an engraved plaque.
—Meira Gebel, Axios, 20 Sep. 2024
The trail can be confusing so keep an eye open for cairns and tree notches serving as trail markers.
—Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 18 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cairn
Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 28 Mar. 2025
The bones excavated at the site were returned to King William Island in 1994 and interred in a memorial cairn.
—Katie Hunt, CNN, 11 Oct. 2024
Ranger died in 1940 and was buried at the summit of Mount Hood, which is marked by a stone cairn and an engraved plaque.
—Meira Gebel, Axios, 20 Sep. 2024
The trail can be confusing so keep an eye open for cairns and tree notches serving as trail markers.
—Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 18 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cairn
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cairn
Noun
-
Clean up piles of footwear scattered across the floor and stay organized with a shoe storage cabinet.—
Ali Faccenda,
People.com,
2 July 2025
-
The Wall Street Journal wrote about how the robots are getting flipped over, stuck in snow piles and some students have been found to sit on them, or trip over them, when drinking.—
Phillip Molnar,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
6 July 2025
Noun
-
Toronto now owns a 6-2 advantage over Boston in the season series, and the Red Sox will look to bounce back and snap their skid on Saturday when Lucas Giolito (3-1, 4.53) takes the mound against Chris Bassitt (7-3, 3.61).—
Mac Cerullo,
Boston Herald,
28 June 2025
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Warren, a friend and former teammate of his in the Los Angeles Angels system, jogged out to the mound.—
Abbey Mastracco,
New York Daily News,
27 June 2025
Noun
-
The end result was a stack of decisions deferring to Trump.—
Alicia Adamczyk,
Fortune,
28 June 2025
-
Simply stir the zingy horseradish sauce together, and stack layers of the cold cuts and fresh veggies to build a roast beef sandwich better than anything Publix can offer.—
Kimberly Holland,
Southern Living,
28 June 2025
Noun
-
The fire has scorched around 20 acres of land on the mountain, but no structures were lost, the department said.—
Miranda Jeyaretnam,
Time,
1 July 2025
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Imagine standing atop a mountain, gazing at the vast landscape below, trying to make sense of the world around you.—
Ben Verghese,
Forbes.com,
1 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cairn.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cairn. Accessed 12 Jul. 2025.
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