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firn

American  
[feern] / fɪərn /

noun

  1. névé.

firn British  
/ fɪən /

noun

  1. another name for névé

"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
firn Scientific  
/ fîrn /

  1. Granular, partially consolidated snow that has passed through one summer melt season but is not yet glacial ice. Firn becomes glacial ice once it has become impermeable to liquid water.

Etymology

Origin of firn

1850–55; < German (Swiss), noun use of firn last year's, old; cognate with Old English fyrn former, ancient, Gothic fairneis; akin to Old Norse forn ancient. See before

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.

Ice and firn, or dense snow leftover from previous seasons, also disappeared from the ridge.

From Washington Post • Aug. 18, 2022

Depending on the temperature of the water, snow and firn, the meltwater can refreeze and can create ice lenses.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 5, 2021

Whillans, I. M. & Grootes, P. M. Isotopic diffusion in cold snow and firn.

From Nature • Feb. 4, 2018

Continual burial, compression, and recrystallization make the firn denser and more ice-like.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2017

Much of the ice on the continent of Antarctica is actually a form of consolidated snow called firn.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

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.