as in piles
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 cairns
The Park Service recommends that people not disturb, knock down or add to cairns, though some parks caution visitors not to rely on them as official pathways.
—
Noah Lyons, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Jan. 2026
Above the glacial lake Ullswater, prehistoric cairns and burial mounds dot the high moorland, including the Cockpit Stone Circle, which spans 90 feet.
—Andrea Bussell, Travel + Leisure, 27 Dec. 2025
Found around the perimeter ring, there are six additional cairns.
—Mike Bezemek, Outside, 29 Oct. 2025
Noah Lyons, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Jan. 2026
Above the glacial lake Ullswater, prehistoric cairns and burial mounds dot the high moorland, including the Cockpit Stone Circle, which spans 90 feet.
—Andrea Bussell, Travel + Leisure, 27 Dec. 2025
Found around the perimeter ring, there are six additional cairns.
—Mike Bezemek, Outside, 29 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cairns
Noun
-
When the power fails, businesses close, employees lose wages, and spoiled inventory piles up.—
Israel Melendez Ayala,
Time,
28 Feb. 2026
-
Defeat piles pressure on Starmer before May elections Labour won just over half the vote in Gorton and Denton at the last general election in 2024.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
27 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Followers of the Hopewell tradition constructed the Toolesboro mounds.—
Michael Plummer,
Des Moines Register,
1 Mar. 2026
-
Funtjar’s is the last in the row and the closest to the mounds of rock on the other side of the fence.—
Sarah Henry,
AZCentral.com,
1 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
The same goes for stacks of firewood.—
Arricca Elin SanSone,
Southern Living,
27 Feb. 2026
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Today any surface that has a coating, any device that uses stacks of extremely thin films — television screens, cell phone screens and the microchips inside — can be traced back to Katharine, repeatedly dipping a metal plate in a trough of water.—
Natalia Sánchez Loayza,
Scientific American,
26 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The contest was quickly put together by the Hope Street Merchants Association, the Summit Neighborhood Association and Mount Hope Community Center as a fun community event to take advantage of the heaps of snow left over from the historic Blizzard of 2026.—
Savana Dunning,
The Providence Journal,
28 Feb. 2026
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There was something about the footprints disappearing in the powder dusting the sidewalks, the heaps of dirty snow that the kids tried to conquer like Everest, and dogs nearly my size scratching their backs on a tiny patch of ice that resonated with me.—
Leslie Hsu Oh,
Outside,
26 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cairns.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cairns. Accessed 7 Mar. 2026.
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