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• fort
  fort

  noun

  a strong or fortified place occupied by troops and usually surrounded by walls, ditches, and other defensive works; a fortress; fortification.
• fort.
  fort.

  abbreviation

  fortification.

fort

¹ American  

[fawrt, fohrt] / fɔrt, foʊrt /

noun

• forts
  plural

1. a strong or fortified place occupied by troops and usually surrounded by walls, ditches, and other defensive works; a fortress; fortification.

2. any permanent army post.

3. (formerly) a trading post.

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idioms

1. hold the fort,

   1. to defend one's position against attack or criticism.

   2. to maintain the existing state of affairs.

fort. ² American  

abbreviation

1. fortification.

2. fortified.

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fort British  

/ fɔːt /

noun

1. a fortified enclosure, building, or position able to be defended against an enemy

2. informal to maintain or guard something temporarily

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fort More Idioms  

1. see hold the fort.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• forts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of fort

First recorded in 1550–60; from Middle French, noun use of adjective fort “strong,” from Latin fortis “strong, tough, hardy”

Explanation

A fort is a place that's made strong and secure enough to be defended during a war. Although it’s usually a military word, you can also make a fort with chairs and a blanket to defend against annoying little siblings. A fort can also be called a fortress or a fortification, although typically a fortress describes a larger structure or a series of structures, while a fort is usually only one. All of these words come from the Latin word fortis for "strong, mighty, or brave.” Traditionally, forts have been strongly defended, with thick stone walls and other elements protecting them from invaders. Today in the US, some forts are simply military bases. Others are simply in the living room.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fort fort. forts

They’d soon start building their presidio fort a few miles away, the twin foundations of Spain’s God and empire.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

Vibe: After a rehearsal dinner at the Palace of Versailles in France, private jets flew guests to a 16th-century fort in Italy for the actual wedding.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

Flushed and sweating, 31-year-old Annisa Enggracia Fidel runs back and forth to defend her fort from invaders -- hundreds of fellow adults all beating the blues by playing a nostalgic Indonesian children's game.

From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026

Two decades later, in the 1860s, the fort walls came down, paving the way for imperial buildings to come up which gave the city its distinct colonial identity.

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026

We don’t go far from the fort to dig the graves.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone

“Got some guys that will meet us in Denver and try to hold fort. We got some rough estimates about when we’ll start to get some of these guys back.”

From Washington Times ● May 19, 2022

“Like all national parks, the Presidio has deferred maintenance. It is, after all, a 19th-century Army fort. We’ve invested in addressing those and the focus of deferred maintenance doesn’t have to postpone other priorities.”

From Washington Times ● Sep. 9, 2021

“I was worried about my husband, but I knew I had to hold down the fort. I had no other options, of course.”

From New York Times ● Oct. 29, 2020

“It’s symbolic to the history of the fort. It’s a patriotic statement on the part of the Friends.”

From Washington Times ● Sep. 25, 2016

“Not until you break the record for living in a fort. We could bring you food. And pillows. And books.”

From "Zara’s Rules for Record-Breaking Fun" by Hena Khan

As kids, we converted this mountain of boxes into forts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

Long before forts, churches or written records marked this coastline, a group of travellers left Akwamufie, the historic capital of the Akwamu Kingdom.

From BBC ● May 2, 2026

“We’re still building forts, we’re just doing it at a large scale,” Josh said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026

Even if the country was never home to the coastal forts from which the trafficking of African people was organised, many enslaved people passed through it on the way to the New World.

From Barron's ● Feb. 20, 2026

Dinwiddie had sent a special message to London, advising that French troops had marched out of New France and built two forts in the Ohio Valley, land claimed by Virginia.

From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen