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:
She said the site was turned into a Crusader fortress between the 12th and 13th centuries.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
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
The Alcazaba, the complex's historic fortress and oldest section, was evacuated after the earthquake, while access to the Nasrid Palaces was suspended, it added.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Reform's plan called "operation fortress" has been endorsed by "former senior members of our armed forces", Yusuf told BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
The redbrick armory stood in the distance on Bedford and Atlantic Avenues like a fortress, or as Uncle Darnell would tell us, like a princess’s castle.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
The two studio lots also boast dozens of soundstages; century-old fortresses that would not be easily duplicated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 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
The fortresses around the turquoise waters of Singapore’s only sand beaches are now abandoned, but a string of British officer’s barracks in the island’s lush interior have been put to new use.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025
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
Considering all these matters, then, I shall praise both those princes who construct fortresses and those who do not.
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.
