as in escarpment
a steep wall of rock, earth, or ice
years of violent ocean storms had heavily eroded the beach, creating a scarp along one end of it
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of scarp
The farther away from a scarp, the lesser the hazard.
—
Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 4 Aug. 2025
That is a clear fingerprint of an earthquake, one that, according to the rounding and wear and sloping of the scarp, occurred about 2.6 million years ago.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 29 July 2025
One of the most perplexing hints of hydration are a handful of slope streaks: narrow, long and sometimes bright but usually dark features that are commonly located near the tops of crater walls and scarps.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 10 July 2025
The rupturing fault created an approximately 20 meters (or 65 feet) high new scarp on the seafloor, which in turns caused the water displacement and a series of six tsunami moving both east towards Sumatra, and west towards Sri Lanka, India and Africa—eventually reaching the Atlantic and Pacific.
—David Bressan, Forbes, 26 Dec. 2024
Surrounding that is the environmental protective garment (EPG), the heavy, visible, outer covering of the suit that protects the astronauts from cuts and punctures on a lunar terrain that bristles with jagged rocks and scarps.
—Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 18 Oct. 2024
The Racehorse Creek area is home to 50-million-year-old leaf fossils, and ancient landslide, and a modern landslide that created a 90-foot scarp in 2009, the state Department of National Resources says in a primer on the area.
—Dennis Romero, NBC News, 15 Sep. 2024
Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 4 Aug. 2025
That is a clear fingerprint of an earthquake, one that, according to the rounding and wear and sloping of the scarp, occurred about 2.6 million years ago.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 29 July 2025
One of the most perplexing hints of hydration are a handful of slope streaks: narrow, long and sometimes bright but usually dark features that are commonly located near the tops of crater walls and scarps.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 10 July 2025
The rupturing fault created an approximately 20 meters (or 65 feet) high new scarp on the seafloor, which in turns caused the water displacement and a series of six tsunami moving both east towards Sumatra, and west towards Sri Lanka, India and Africa—eventually reaching the Atlantic and Pacific.
—David Bressan, Forbes, 26 Dec. 2024
Surrounding that is the environmental protective garment (EPG), the heavy, visible, outer covering of the suit that protects the astronauts from cuts and punctures on a lunar terrain that bristles with jagged rocks and scarps.
—Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 18 Oct. 2024
The Racehorse Creek area is home to 50-million-year-old leaf fossils, and ancient landslide, and a modern landslide that created a 90-foot scarp in 2009, the state Department of National Resources says in a primer on the area.
—Dennis Romero, NBC News, 15 Sep. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scarp
Noun
-
On the eastern side of the escarpment near Noto Canyon is a deposit of sediment reaching up to 800 meters thick.—
Elizabeth Fernandez,
Big Think,
4 Sep. 2025
-
Various Rovos itineraries follow the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley or traverse the red deserts of Namibia.—
Ann Shields,
AFAR Media,
26 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Thousands of years ago, the 52,000-plus acres now known as Mesa Verde National Park were home to the Ancestral Pueblo People, who built a series of sophisticated stone dwellings in the cliffs here.—
Cu Fleshman,
Travel + Leisure,
7 Sep. 2025
-
In this sequel to The Ice Road that trades Canadian ice flats for cliff-edge drop-offs and hairpin passes, Neeson’s grieving character Mike McCann heads to the Himalayas to scatter his brother’s ashes.—
Travis Bean,
Forbes.com,
6 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The palisade walls and structural support beams that hold up the fort are made to look like wood but are constructed of concrete.—
Patrick Connolly,
The Orlando Sentinel,
1 June 2025
-
But what are the other buildings impacted by palisades fires?—
Katherine McLaughlin,
Architectural Digest,
13 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Scarp.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scarp. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share