fortress
Americannoun
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fortresses
plural
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a large fortified place; a fort or group of forts, often including a town; citadel.
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any place of exceptional security; stronghold.
noun
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a large fort or fortified town
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a place or source of refuge or support
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fortress
1300–50; Middle English forteresse < Old French < Vulgar Latin *fortaricia (compare Medieval Latin fortalitia ), equivalent to Latin fort ( is ) strong + -ar-, formative of uncertain meaning +- icia -ice
Explanation
A fortress is a large building or complex of buildings used as a military stronghold. In a military sense, a fortress is often called a “fort." From its original sense of stronghold, the word fortress has stretched to include strongholds in a more figurative sense. Martin Luther used fortress to describe unfailing spiritual support when he wrote, “A mighty fortress is our God.” When someone has a hard time trusting others, you might say they have retreated to a "fortress of their own making."
Vocabulary lists containing fortress
Stay Strong: Forc and Fort
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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:
The concern isn’t about tech heavyweights—Meta, Microsoft, Google—with fortress balance sheets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Held each year on 14 July, the national holiday marks the storming of the Bastille fortress in 1789, a key event from the French Revolution.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
The altitude has helped turn the Azteca into a fortress for El Tri, which has lost just two competitive matches there since the stadium opened in 1966—and none in the past decade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
"I wanted to see what the mystery was about," said Nick Frey, a 28-year-old US tourist admiring the fortress.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
The city felt like a fortress, huge and unfriendly.
From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk
French taxes paid for the powerful artillery that breached English-held fortresses and mowed down England’s last expeditionary force, at Castillon, Gascony, in July 1453.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe's eastern edge.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
Saturday's main event took place after pre-sunrise rituals, and hundreds of youngsters used the pool in front of one of Gondar's fortresses to get baptised.
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2024
In addition to identifying forts similar to the walled fortresses Poidebard found, the team identified forts with interior architecture features and ones built around a mounded citadel.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2023
Some have built fortresses; others have torn them down and destroyed them.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
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.
