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escarpment

UK/ɪˈskɑːp.mənt/US/ɪˈskɑɹp.mənt/
nounC2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,021 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: escarpments

An escarpment is a long steep slope at the edge of high ground. Along the escarpment, a chalk escarpment.

It forms where a hard layer of rock sits on a softer one that wears away beneath. An escarpment has a steep face on one side and a gentle slope on the other.

The original uploader was Geof at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of escarpment

  1. 1nounescarpmentA long steep slope at the edge of high ground.C2

    “The whole escarpment was visible for thirty miles.”

escarpment is a slope.

Where it comes from

French escarpement comes from escarper, to cut steeply, from Italian scarpa, a slope.

  1. French

    escarpement

  2. English, today

    escarpment

French escarpement. by surface analysis, escarp + -ment.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

escarpment in the wild

  • The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to the south of Pemberton.

    Darling Scarp

  • The escarpment is the cliff over which the Niagara River plunges at Niagara Falls, for which it is named.

    Niagara Escarpment

  • The escarpment is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.

    Niagara Escarpment

  • The Pennyroyal is bordered on the north by Muldraugh Hill, the geological escarpment that forms the transition from the geologically older Bluegrass to the Pennyroyal.

    Pennyroyal Plateau

  • An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.

    Escarpment

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.