ridge

American  

[rij] / rɪdʒ /

noun

• ridges
  plural

1. a long, narrow elevation of land; a chain of hills or mountains.

2. the long and narrow upper edge, angle, or crest of something, as a hill, wave, or vault.

3. the back of an animal.

4. any raised, narrow strip, as on cloth.

5. the horizontal line in which the tops of the rafters of a roof meet.

6. (on a weather chart) a narrow, elongated area of high pressure.

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verb (used with object)

ridged, ridging

1. to provide with or form into a ridge or ridges.

2. to mark with or as if with ridges.

verb (used without object)

ridged, ridging

1. to form ridges.

ridge British  

/ rɪdʒ /

noun

1. a long narrow raised land formation with sloping sides esp one formed by the meeting of two faces of a mountain or of a mountain buttress or spur

2. any long narrow raised strip or elevation, as on a fabric or in ploughed land

3. anatomy any elongated raised margin or border on a bone, tooth, tissue membrane, etc

4. 1. the top of a roof at the junction of two sloping sides

   2. ( as modifier )

      a ridge tile

5. the back or backbone of an animal, esp a whale

6. meteorol an elongated area of high pressure, esp an extension of an anticyclone Compare trough

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verb

1. to form into a ridge or ridges

ridge Scientific  

/ rĭj /

1. A long narrow chain of hills or mountains.

2. See mid-ocean ridge

3. A narrow, elongated zone of relatively high atmospheric pressure associated with an area of peak anticyclonic circulation.

4. Compare trough

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• ridgelike
  adjective
• ridgy
  adjective
• unridged
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• ridges
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of ridge

before 900; Middle English rigge (noun), Old English hrycg spine, crest, ridge; cognate with Dutch rug, German Rücken, Old Norse hryggr

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Explanation

A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated strip of land or any raised strip or band. A ridge is a line that rises above what it is attached to. Think of a ridge as a combination between rim and edge. From the Old English hrycg, meaning “back of the man or beast” or “the top or crest” of something (combined, the senses mean “backbone”), ridge is often used for the beam that joins the parts of a sloping roof. Ridge also refers to the line formed by hills or mountains, as in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is made up of mountains that lie underneath the Atlantic Ocean.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ridge ridges ridged ridging

The Kekova ceramics are distinctive, with two handles, a ridge in the middle and a flat base.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

Southern California’s extreme heat is driven by a persistent high-pressure ridge that has parked over the region, causing sinking warming air with very little overnight relief.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

Hike from ridge to reef Mason’s Travel tour company leads a guided hike through Mahé’s lush Morne Seychellois National Park to secluded Anse Major beach, followed by snorkeling at Cap Ternay Marine Park.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

Israel has been intensifying strikes in the southern Nabatieh area after saying on Thursday that it had seized the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge from Hezbollah, a claim the Iran-backed group has not commented on.

From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026

They had a perfect view of St. Helens rising up over the ridge.

From "I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980" by Lauren Tarshis

How did trucks and tourists and Californians manage the uphills and downhills among inclines and ridges that could be windy or icy or foggy, sometimes all at once?

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026

The facade has vertical ridges running down the side, which Diamond said was inspired by the ribs of Saguaro cactuses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026

"It looked absolutely disgusting, like Sellotape with like little ridges in it," said the 42-year-old from Cardiff.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

Lucy also provided detailed views of Donaldjohanson's unusual shape, along with craters, ridges, and other surface features that help tell the story of its evolution.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026

On Sundays they wandered among the velvet lawns of Washington Park and, if in the mood for solitude, the wind-blasted ridges of Jackson Park at the easternmost end of Sixty-third Street, on the lakeshore.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

For about $70, a plastic surgeon injected the ridged cartilage of her ears with a hyaluronic-acid filler that caused her ears to perk up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026

Tripe stew, nachos, even “mac” and cheese arrive with ridged, cut-up fried dough standing in for potatoes, tortilla chips, or pasta.

From Salon ● Dec. 6, 2025

Some placentas have evolved to be disklike, some are leaf-shaped, some ring-shaped, heart-shaped; some are ridged, branched, labyrinthine, or weblike.

From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2024

The sponge pulls this off via its spiral, ridged outer surface that functions like a spiral staircase.

From Science Daily ● May 17, 2024

Or it might be that a food is fun to eat—like ridged potato chips or cereal bars.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

This upper-level ridging compressed the marine inversion, confining the marine layer clouds and fog to the immediate coast.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2023

Applying a clustering technique to the 124 largest outbreaks, he found four patterns — and in all, there was mid-tropospheric high-pressure ridging centered over different portions of western North America.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 24, 2022

The researchers found that there’s an increased risk of combined ozone and particulate matter pollution during atmospheric ridging events.

From Scientific American ● Jan. 6, 2022

The frequency of these ridging patterns has increased significantly since 2000, according to the new research.

From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2022

The latter plowings are toward the rows, the effort being by ridging to give a long blanched surface to the shoots.

From Asparagus, its culture for home use and for market: a practical treatise on the planting, cultivation, harvesting, marketing, and preserving of asparagus, with notes on its history by F. M. Hexamer

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Related Words

• hill
• rim

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