fortress

American  

[fawr-tris] / ˈfɔr trɪs /

noun

• fortresses
  plural

1. a large fortified place; a fort or group of forts, often including a town; citadel.

2. any place of exceptional security; stronghold.

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fortress British  

/ ˈfɔːtrɪs /

noun

1. a large fort or fortified town

2. a place or source of refuge or support

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verb

1. (tr) to protect with or as if with a fortress

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• fortresses
  plural

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fortress fortresses

The concern isn’t about tech heavyweights—Meta, Microsoft, Google—with fortress balance sheets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

Minutes earlier, the players paraded around Azteca Stadium — traditionally an impenetrable fortress — to applaud El Tri fans with tears in their eyes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026

England's players dropped to their knees in sheer elation and exhaustion at the end of a performance fit for heroes as Mexico's great fortress of the Azteca was breached.

From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026

The altitude has helped turn the Azteca into a fortress for El Tri, which has lost just two competitive matches there since the stadium opened in 1966—and none in the past decade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

Like one who digs a tunnel beneath a fortress, I would undermine his revenge, not aid it.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

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

Fish, the 34-year-old councilmember, happens to be a renter in a block-spanning “luxury” apartment complex: “One of those fortresses that everyone makes fun of.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 2025

The fortresses around the turquoise waters of Singapore’s only sand beaches are now abandoned, but a string of British officer’s barracks in the island’s lush interior have been put to new use.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025

Priests carried tabots into one of the fortresses in Gondar, where they will be kept until the end of the festivities.

From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2024

People who once held family fortresses against wind and weather, against scourges of frost and drought and insect enemies, now cluster against the busy breast of the big town.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

Related Words

• barrier
• citadel
• garrison
• rampart