glacier

American  

[gley-sher] / ˈgleɪ ʃər /

noun

glaciers plural

1. an extended mass of ice formed from snow falling and accumulating over the years and moving very slowly, either descending from high mountains, as in valley glaciers, or moving outward from centers of accumulation, as in continental glaciers.

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glacier British  

/ ˈɡlæsɪə, ˈɡleɪs- /

noun

1. a slowly moving mass of ice originating from an accumulation of snow. It can either spread out from a central mass ( continental glacier ) or descend from a high valley ( alpine glacier )

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glacier Scientific  

/ glā′shər /

1. A large mass of ice moving very slowly through a valley or spreading outward from a center. Glaciers form over many years from packed snow in areas where snow accumulates faster than it melts. A glacier is always moving, but when its forward edge melts faster than the ice behind it advances, the glacier as a whole shrinks backward.

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glacier Cultural  

1. A large mass of ice formed over many years that does not melt during the summer. Glaciers move slowly over an area of land such as a mountain valley.

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Discover More

A significant percentage of the water of the Earth is locked up in glaciers.

Glaciers exist in high mountains throughout the temperate zones and cover most of Antarctica. Glaciers recede during warm periods and can expand during cold periods, creating ice ages.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• glaciered
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• glaciers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of glacier

1735–45; < dialectal French, derivative of Old French glace ice < Late Latin glacia (for Latin glaciēs )

Explanation

A glacier is a very large ice mass, sometimes miles and miles long. Glaciers might not seem all that exciting at first, but people are paying close attention to them because their melting is an indication of climate change. Most glaciers on Earth are found around the North and South poles, but every continent except for Australia has glaciers somewhere in its high mountain ranges. People often want to go see glaciers because they're beautiful, and some you can actually hike across. Luckily, if you get thirsty glaciers are the planet’s largest reservoir of freshwater. You’ll just have to find some way of melting them . . .

Example Sentences

Results indicate that, as temperatures rise, future algal blooms in this region may not follow the same trajectory as those at the more widely studied Greenland Ice Sheet, which regularly experiences large-scale glacier algal blooms.

From BBC • Jun. 30, 2026

The samples revealed "unique algal communities" on different ice and snow surfaces – challenging the assumption that Antarctic glacier ecosystems will respond uniformly to global warming.

From BBC • Jun. 30, 2026

The snow and ice accumulated last winter by Switzerland's glaciers is expected to have all melted away by Monday, marking the alarming second-earliest arrival on record of the tipping point known as glacier loss day.

From Barron's • Jun. 27, 2026

The fairways may be wide and forgiving, but hitting at the greens can feel like trying to land the ball on a glacier.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026

The great multiple glacier we are on feeds down into the valley from the west, and we are on its extreme eastern edge.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Related Words

• ice floe
• iceberg