- a circular space or arrangement
- Old Poet. a circle; ring
- Archaic a circus
- Geol. a steep, hollow excavation high on a mountainside, made by glacial erosion; natural amphitheater
Origin of cirque
French from Classical Latin circus: see circuscirque
cirqueWebster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"cirque." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 26 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/cirque>.
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cirque. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/cirque
cirque
noun
- A steep bowl-shaped hollow occurring at the upper end of a mountain valley, especially one forming the head of a glacier or stream. Also called cwm .
- A ring; a circle.
Origin of cirque
French from Latin circus circle ; see circle .THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"cirque." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 26 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/cirque>.
APA Style
cirque. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/cirque
A steep, amphitheatre-shaped hollow occurring at the upper end of a mountain valley, especially one forming the head of a glacier or stream. Cirques are formed by the erosive activity of glaciers and often contain a small lake.
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MLA Style
"cirque." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 26 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/cirque>.
APA Style
cirque. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/cirque
Noun
(plural cirques)
- (geology) A curved depression in a mountainside with steep walls, forming the end of a valley.
Origin
Borrowing from French cirque, from Latin circus (“ring, circle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, to bend”) .
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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MLA Style
"cirque." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 26 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/cirque>.
APA Style
cirque. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/cirque
