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moraine

UK/məˈɹeɪn/US/məˈɹeɪn/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,210 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: moraines

A moraine is the heap of rubble a glacier pushes and leaves. A terminal moraine, moraine ridges, walk along the moraine.

A terminal moraine marks how far the ice reached before retreating, which is how the extent of past glaciers is mapped. Much of the ground of northern Europe is moraine left by the last ice age.

Bijaya2043 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of moraine

  1. 1nounmoraineThe heap of rubble a glacier pushes and leaves.C2

    “The lake is held back by a moraine left behind when the glacier melted.”

moraine is a deposit.

Where it comes from

French moraine comes through Alpine dialect from a word meaning a snout or muzzle.

  1. Vulgar Latin

    *murrum

  2. frp

    mor

  3. Italian

    morena

  4. French

    moraine

  5. English, today

    moraine

Built from

  • morre · frp — muzzle, snout

From French moraine, from Savoyard Italian morena, from frp mor, morre (“muzzle, snout”), from Vulgar Latin murrum. Compare morion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Rocks & Minerals

Practise this word

moraine in the wild

  • Lateral moraines are those formed at the side of the ice flow, and terminal moraines are those formed at the foot, marking the maximum advance of the glacier.

    Moraine

  • Other types include ground moraines (till-covered areas forming sheets on flat or irregular topography) and medial moraines (formed where two glaciers meet).

    Moraine

  • A moraine-dammed lake, occurs when the terminal moraine has prevented meltwater from leaving the valley.

    Moraine-dammed lake

  • When a glacier retreats, there is a space left over between the retreating glacier and the piece that stayed intact which holds leftover debris (moraine).

    Moraine-dammed lake

  • A terminal moraine, also called an end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance.

    Terminal moraine

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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.