fortress
Americannoun
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fortresses
plural
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a large fortified place; a fort or group of forts, often including a town; citadel.
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any place of exceptional security; stronghold.
noun
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a large fort or fortified town
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a place or source of refuge or support
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fortress
1300–50; Middle English forteresse < Old French < Vulgar Latin *fortaricia (compare Medieval Latin fortalitia ), equivalent to Latin fort ( is ) strong + -ar-, formative of uncertain meaning +- icia -ice
Explanation
A fortress is a large building or complex of buildings used as a military stronghold. In a military sense, a fortress is often called a “fort." From its original sense of stronghold, the word fortress has stretched to include strongholds in a more figurative sense. Martin Luther used fortress to describe unfailing spiritual support when he wrote, “A mighty fortress is our God.” When someone has a hard time trusting others, you might say they have retreated to a "fortress of their own making."
Vocabulary lists containing fortress
Stay Strong: Forc and Fort
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"A museum cannot be a fortress," Hollein says.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka, to the south, form part of what is known as Ukraine's "fortress belt" – a system of heavily reinforced defence lines in the east.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
She said the site was turned into a Crusader fortress between the 12th and 13th centuries.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
Cage plays Roy, a gifted con artist with obsessive-compulsive disorder whose tics, phobias and elaborate rituals have turned his immaculate home into a fortress against the world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Marmeluc and Clotho have already disappeared inside the fortress of Mont-Saint-Michel.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe's eastern edge.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
Begun in the 15th century, the 25,000-mile network undulated over the Andes and west coast of South America, replete with stone paths, rope bridges, staircases, fortresses, inns and warehouses to serve relays of royal runners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
To love a Scorpio, then, is to fiercely protect their softness with the same shadowy ardor that they use to construct their inner adamantine fortresses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2024
Saturday's main event took place after pre-sunrise rituals, and hundreds of youngsters used the pool in front of one of Gondar's fortresses to get baptised.
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2024
In front of the fortresses sat huge, tank-like vehicles.
From "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat" by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
