fortress

American  

[fawr-tris] / ˈfɔr trɪs /

noun

• fortresses
  plural

1. a large fortified place; a fort or group of forts, often including a town; citadel.

2. any place of exceptional security; stronghold.

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fortress British  

/ ˈfɔːtrɪs /

noun

1. a large fort or fortified town

2. a place or source of refuge or support

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verb

1. (tr) to protect with or as if with a fortress

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• fortresses
  plural

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fortress fortresses

Cage plays Roy, a gifted con artist with obsessive-compulsive disorder whose tics, phobias and elaborate rituals have turned his immaculate home into a fortress against the world.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

They accuse Hans S of luring her into a secluded area beneath the fortress, known as the General von Aster room after a 19th-Century Prussian general.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Four months later, Meta’s Zuckerberg shelled out a record-shattering $170 million to purchase the in-progress fortress.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Kusman, 86, has dedicated his life to the fortress of Cavustepe in eastern Turkey, and to learning the language of the vanished kingdom of Urartu, to honour its forgotten gods and rulers.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

One day they woke as usual, but they did not wake in their fortress.

From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman

She travelled to Cape Coast Castle, one of the many coastal fortresses that had been run by the British, and where enslaved people were held before enduring the brutal "Middle Passage" to the Americas.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 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

Fish, the 34-year-old councilmember, happens to be a renter in a block-spanning “luxury” apartment complex: “One of those fortresses that everyone makes fun of.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 2025

Begun in the 15th century, the 25,000-mile network undulated over the Andes and west coast of South America, replete with stone paths, rope bridges, staircases, fortresses, inns and warehouses to serve relays of royal runners.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025

Over the next ten minutes, ministers followed the protest of alien nerves in fortresses across the Bonecruel Mountains and the Plateau of Drume.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

Related Words

• barrier
• citadel
• garrison
• rampart