rampart
Americannoun
-
ramparts
plural
-
Fortification.
-
a broad elevation or mound of earth raised as a fortification around a place and usually capped with a stone or earth parapet.
-
such an elevation together with the parapet.
-
-
anything serving as a bulwark or defense.
- Synonyms:
- guard, barricade, breastwork, fortification
verb (used with object)
-
ramparts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ramparted,
past participle, past
-
ramparting
present participle
noun
-
the surrounding embankment of a fort, often including any walls, parapets, walks, etc, that are built on the bank
-
anything resembling a rampart in form or function, esp in being a defence or bulwark
-
a steep rock wall in a river gorge
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
rampartsimple
-
rampartssimple
-
have rampartedperfect
-
has rampartedperfect
-
am rampartingprogressive
-
are rampartingprogressive
-
is rampartingprogressive
-
have been rampartingperfect progressive
-
has been rampartingperfect progressive
Past
-
rampartedsimple
-
had rampartedperfect
-
was rampartingprogressive
-
were rampartingprogressive
-
had been rampartingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rampart
1575–85; < Middle French, derivative of remparer, equivalent to re- re- + emparer to take possession of < Provençal amparar ≪ Latin ante- ante- + parāre to prepare
Explanation
If you are building a sand castle and want it to be extra realistic, don’t forget the rampart. This protective wall may not keep the ocean away, but it might intimidate a few hostile hermit crabs. This noun is derived from the French verb remparer, meaning “to fortify,” and dates back to the 16th century. This usually refers to a large defensive wall surrounding a castle, but can be a barrier built along a road or an embankment constructed alongside a river. This word is famously used in the lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States: “O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming...”
Vocabulary lists containing rampart
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The Star-Spangled Banner
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"The Cask of Amontillado"
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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:
On top of this base, turf would have been laid to build a rampart about 2 metres high.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2023
Up close, the structure, which will cost as much as $40 million, looks less like a dune and more like a rampart.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2022
But a spiky rampart of intellectuality surrounds Lerner’s work.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 2019
And the overwhelming suspicion was that he was looking for a rampart to which he could retreat in the event of outright civilisational collapse.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 15, 2018
A thick stone parapet protected the outer edge of the rampart, reaching as high as Sansa's chin, with crenella- tions cut into it every five feet for archers.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
This laid-back, cafe-laden ledge is located above the beaches and ancient ramparts where the Douro River pours through its last, lovely tributaries into the Atlantic Ocean.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
The tilted-over towers overlooking the palace moat have all been brought back upright, and workers are building new brick castellations for their supporting ramparts.
From Barron's ● Mar. 26, 2026
Defenders of the bolillo ascended the ramparts of the internet to defend their humble fare.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025
That same year, with his painstaking production of The Beach Boys’ blockbuster single “Good Vibrations,” Wilson seemed poised to explore even greater musical ramparts.
From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2025
Constance and the Abbot looked at the results from the ramparts.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
We visited rambling, ramparted castles like the massive Llansteffan, framed by cerulean skies overlooking the sea, and we walked through landscapes where thick hedgerows line country lanes.
From New York Times ● Mar. 20, 2014
Had not nature ramparted up the tongue with teeth and the lips with hair as reins and bridles against the tongue's loose use.
From Browning's England A Study in English Influences in Browning by Helen Archibald Clarke
The old Radical ghosts go by, more real than the living men, to assault I know not what ramparted city in hell.
From Alarms and Discursions by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
Step by step he fought his way up, over breastworks and rifle pits, felled trees and bowlders, through ravines and gullies, till the vanguard reached the giant palisades of rock which ramparted the top.
From Captains of the Civil War; a chronicle of the blue and the gray by William Charles Henry Wood
Formerly, I thought that death was wearing out,—I stood ramparted about with so many healthy friends.
From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb
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.
