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fiord

[fyawrd, fyohrd; Norwegian fyohr, fyoo r]
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noun
  1. fjord.
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fjord

or fiord

[fyawrd, fyohrd; Norwegian fyohr, fyoo r]
noun
  1. a long, narrow arm of the sea bordered by steep cliffs: usually formed by glacial erosion.
  2. (in Scandinavia) a bay.
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Origin of fjord

From Norwegian; see origin at firth
Related formsfjord·ic, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for fiord

sound, inlet, gulf, harbor, anchorage, estuary, strait, cove, bayou, bight, mouth, lagoon, basin, arm, narrows, fiord, firth, loch

Examples from the Web for fiord

Historical Examples of fiord

  • The boys were to cross the fiord with them and return in the boat.

    Love and Lucy

    Maurice Henry Hewlett

  • Those heights had as many hiding places as the fiord country.

    Storm Over Warlock

    Andre Norton

  • They must locate some break nearer than the fiord, down which they had come.

    Storm Over Warlock

    Andre Norton

  • In front of it the sea came up into the land and made a fiord.

    Viking Tales

    Jennie Hall

  • Thorstein taught him to swim in the rough waters of the fiord.

    Viking Tales

    Jennie Hall

British Dictionary definitions for fiord

fiord

noun
  1. a variant spelling of fjord
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fjord

fiord

noun
  1. (esp on the coast of Norway) a long narrow inlet of the sea between high steep cliffs formed by glacial action
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Word Origin for fjord

C17: from Norwegian, from Old Norse fjörthr; see firth, ford
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fiord

n.

alternative form of fjord (q.v.).

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fjord

n.

1670s, from Norwegian fiord, from Old Norse fjörðr, from North Germanic *ferthuz, from PIE *prtus, from *per- "going, passage" (see port (n.1)).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
fiord in Science

fjord

[fyôrd]
  1. A long, narrow, deep inlet from the sea between steep slopes of a mountainous coast. Fjords usually occur where ocean water flows into valleys formed near the coast by glaciers.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.