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
Found around the perimeter ring, there are six additional cairns.
—
Mike Bezemek, Outside, 29 Oct. 2025
Mike Bezemek, Outside, 29 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cairns
Noun
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Shelf ice forms along beaches where ice piles up after being pushed to shore.—
Sarah Moore,
Freep.com,
5 Jan. 2026
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Amid a large snowstorm in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, one curious dog dived into piles of snow in a now-viral video.—
Fernando Cervantes Jr,
USA Today,
2 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Boxes of white rice, cans of vegetables, chocolate chips and pasta rested at the top of one of the mounds of food.—
Laura Bauer,
Kansas City Star,
29 Oct. 2025
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Japanese anemones produce dense mounds of deeply toothed foliage that remain nearly evergreen in mild climates.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
27 Oct. 2025
Noun
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During 15 years working across various tech stacks and companies, this has been the most straightforward, underrated, and powerful way to regain my excitement at work.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
6 Nov. 2025
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Wiedenfels assured the Street that the CNN app draws on the company’s existing technology stacks with limited incremental operating costs.—
Jill Goldsmith,
Deadline,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
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But the mandates also help colleges shovel heaps of bureaucratic muck—validating data for accreditation, carrying out enrollment, flagging troubled students, aggregating metrics of all kinds.—
Ian Bogost,
The Atlantic,
4 Nov. 2025
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Williams took a new job in a new county in Georgia, sold his dream house, and packed up heaps of his Thomas memorabilia and left it in the middle of the floor.—
Luca Evans,
Denver Post,
17 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cairns.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cairns. Accessed 8 Jan. 2026.
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